Amid an initiative to end PKK terrorism, authorities aim to grant new rights and improve existing ones for victims of terrorism, specifically counterterrorism veterans and families of martyrs.
Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş, whose ministry oversees the work in the field, recently said they were working on new proposals to amend regulations throughout Parliament for veterans and next of kin of martyrs. After her remarks at the session of a parliamentary committee tackling the terror-free Türkiye initiative earlier this week, the Sabah newspaper on Thursday unveiled planned and proposed steps.
A 38-article draft regulation will include raising wages allocated for parents of martyrs, a clear definition of the status of martyrs and veterans, and employment opportunities for children of martyred security personnel and civilians. Göktaş said Parliament’s committee for national defense, led by former army chief and Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, was coordinating the work with relevant government agencies and ministries. “We aim this work to be in full harmony with the terror-free Türkiye vision and the work of the parliamentary committee (tackling the terror-free Türkiye initiative),” she said.
Representatives of foundations and associations for families of martyrs and veterans say some articles in the regulations should be rapidly implemented to address the needs of those families.
Mustafa Işık, head of the Association of War Disabled Veterans, Widows and Orphans of Martyrs, told Sabah newspaper that their association supplied proposals to the ministry to shape the planned regulation. Işık said the amendments will resolve several issues that families of martyrs and veterans have faced. Among them is a clearer definition about who can be identified as martyrs and who can be identified as veterans, as Işık pointed out that existing laws were lacking in this definition and thus, cause problems with the rights those people were supposed to be entitled to.
Işık said they also suggested increasing monthly payments to parents of martyrs to the level of minimum wage and to be paid for each parent. They also proposed raising payments for veterans at the rank of private and closing the gap between payments to those veterans and veterans of higher rank. They also want treatment options for prosthetic limbs for veterans in provinces outside the capital Ankara, which is currently the only place where they can access prosthetic limbs free of charge. He said parents and siblings of martyrs, as well as their spouses and children, were entitled to one job quota each in the government’s affirmative action employment policies, and children of martyrs with multiple children should also benefit from these quotas.
The PKK terrorist group, which started a disarmament process last month, is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people across Türkiye since the 1980s. Most martyrs are victims of terrorist attacks by the group, including civilians, military and law enforcement personnel. Türkiye also lost many soldiers during counterterrorism operations both within the country and in neighboring Iraq, where the group is currently holed up.
According to information provided by the Ministry of Family and Social Services, some 51,317 family members of martyrs benefited from affirmative action in employment so far, while 248,731 people, including veterans and families of martyrs, were granted free travel passes for mass transportation, another privilege for those groups.
