Mother condemns HDP for recruiting son for PKK terrorists
Naciye Sönmez Yıldız holds photo of her son abducted by the PKK in Muş, Turkey, Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. (IHA Photo)


A mother protesting her son’s abduction by the PKK terrorists in Turkey’s Muş province condemned the pro-PKK Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) for helping the terrorists recruit children as she called on her son to surrender.

Naciye Sönmez Yıldız, whose son was abducted in 2015 at the age of 15, told Ihlas News Agency (IHA) that her son was deceived into joining the terrorists when he was attending school in Tatvan. She noted that she did not hear from her son for two years.

"After two years, they told me that my son had been kidnapped, I could not do anything as I was alone and sick because I had just gone under surgery," Yıldız said, as she cursed the HDP for taking children away from their families.

She noted that the party deceives children into joining the terrorists.

"What do they want from us, from our children?" she said.

She also called on her son to surrender to Turkish security forces and said she will continue to protest until all children are reunited with their families.

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 HDP headquarters started with three mothers who claimed the terrorists had forcibly recruited their children.

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 United States and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.