President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday will visit the families who have been staging a sit-in protest for nearly two years in front of the pro-PKK Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) office in southeastern Diyarbakır province to demand the return of their children abducted by the terrorist group.
President Erdoğan will visit Diyarbakır for the first time since his last visit in March 2019. As part of the itinerary, Erdoğan will inaugurate completed projects at a ceremony to be held in front of the Diyarbakır Governor's Office.
Erdoğan, who is expected to perform the Friday prayer in the city, will meet with the families who have been holding a sit-in in front the HDP office for 674 days.
During the visit, Erdoğan will also attend the consultative assembly meeting to be held by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Diyarbakır provincial directorate and address the party members.
Families in Diyarbakır province have been protesting since Sept. 3, 2019, encouraging their children who were abducted or forcibly recruited by the terrorist group to give up their weapons and surrender to Turkish authorities.
Protests in Diyarbakır outside the office of the HDP started with three mothers who claimed their children had been forcibly recruited by the terrorists.
The HDP, long facing public scrutiny and judicial probes over its ties to the PKK, is under pressure from the growing civilian movement. Various groups from around Turkey have supported the Kurdish mothers in their cause, with many paying visits to show their solidarity.
In its more than 40-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
