Families call for release of three minors by PKK militants

DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency

The mothers make a press statement read in front of the Diyarbakır Municipality building on May 19. AA Photo

The mothers of three high school students who have allegedly joined the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have called for the return of their children, vowing to hold a hunger strike if they do not.
The three 15-year-old students are all from the same school in the Lice district of Diyarbakır. Their families said they had been told that their children were going out for a picnic on April 23, but never returned home. In a press statement read in front of the Diyarbakır Municipality building on May 19, the families called on President Abdullah Gül, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan to work for the release of their children.

Safiye G., the mother of one of the children, said her daughter had been taken to the protests against a military patrol on April 23, although she had been told that her daughter was attending a picnic.

“She was deceived. This is kidnapping … Please send my daughter back. I call on everyone. My daughter is my baby. I have been buried alive in a grave since she has been gone,” said Safiye G.

Mahfuze E., the mother of one of the other children, said her son was “exposed to the propaganda of the PKK” and was “deceivingly taken to their bases in the mountains.”

“I don’t want 15-year-old kids to be sent to the mountains. I want peace to come immediately. We have heard from local sources that my son is in the rural area of Lice, but we don’t know where he is now,” she said.

She also said they had been unable to receive any response from Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputies on the subject.