A purposeful event about the Diyarbakır mothers in Türkiye's globally renowned Cappadocia region in central Nevşehir province was coordinated by professor Adem Palabıyık of Bitlis Eren University last week.
I was one of the participants of the First International Child Watch Congress in Nevşehir on Jan. 7. The silent protests entered their fourth year last autumn, which started when a mother from Diyarbakır, Hacire Akar, shouted in front of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) headquarters in Diyarbakir, demanding her son back from the PKK terrorist group. Her son Mehmet soon returned home. Akar's heroic initiative inspired many other mothers and fathers, who have been actively protesting for the return of their children since then.
A workshop was held in Istanbul before, and the results of it were reported in front of the HDP headquarters in Diyarbakır.
When you look from afar, you read some events and stories only as news, as an article.
When I was in Diyarbakır and visited the mothers on the watch for their children, I repeatedly asked them how they were. Each mother or father stood with a photograph of the kidnapped child on the mountain. We listened to the stories of each mother and father one by one.
The parents told us at what age and by what method the terrorist organization had abducted their children and taken them to the mountain. In some cases, the children who went to the HDP offices were taken by the terrorists to the mountains. Some were persuaded by their friends at universities and taken to the wild heights. Some participated in a cultural event and then vanished afterward – abducted after the event. There are girls aged 13, 14 and 17 among these children who were abducted to the mountain, which is a true tragedy. When you think about how meticulously and protectively they treat their children, mothers or fathers can feel how agonizing it is as you listen to the Diyarbakir parents. As the parents tell their stories with tears in their eyes, we are also enveloped in a deep sadness.
Twice in my life, I was ashamed of being human. The first was when I saw farmers fighting against the Janjaweed militia in Sudan, where they lived helplessly on the outskirts of Khartoum, between sand and dust. When one observes the poverty, distress and impossibility these farmers suffer, one experiences a feeling of hopelessness.
Secondly, when I listened to the parents at the watch in Diyarbakır, their painful condition greatly affected me, and I could not complete the tour. While there were hundreds of families sitting there with photographs of their children, I could barely listen to 15-20 of them.
In addition, those ignoring this human tragedy and the hypocrisy of the West also make one feel physically nauseous. However, it seems that the West will gradually have to abandon this hypocrisy in the face of this effective action put forth with determination by the Diyarbakır parents. Because journalists and politicians have a conscience and professional ethics, it will not be possible for them to keep their silence as long as the determined and deep actions of the mothers continue.
Dutch investigative journalist Rena Nejtes, while shedding light on the dark side of the PKK with her documentary "After the Rain: Families Seeking Justice," was exposed to threats from that very dark side. However, the civil action initiated by the mothers against the terrorist organization fed by chaos and terrorism succeeds in the modest reality of being a mother.
The Presidency's Directorate of Communications and the Interior Ministry supported the Child Watch Congress. The coordinators are planning to hold a similar event in Europe (most likely in Berlin, Germany). Academics, political scientists and journalists from seven countries attended the congress. Some foreign journalists talked about their experiences and how the PKK took children and turned them into soldiers and warriors. At the Congress, where well-known Turkish artists, scientists and lawyers participated, Lawyer Fatma Sümer drew a framework about child fighters and kidnapped children in Türkiye and other parts of the globe. Some academicians talked about the extraordinary periods in the world and Türkiye.
The Diyarbakır moms are inspiring the "Qamishli mothers," who have the potential to enlarge the umbrella of the entire Syrian women to cover Manbij and Tal Abyad mothers and wives.
This quest for the mothers in Diyarbakır is likely the first example of its kind in the world. A mother's revolt against a terrorist organization that kidnapped her child into the mountains triggered a legendary resistance story.
