PKK’s child recruits face prison

The chief prosecutor's office in the eastern Turkish province of Van have asked the court to sentence two girls aged 14 and 13 to seven years in prison for being members of the terrorist organization PKK. The two girls fled home in November 2014 and traveled to a camp belonging to the terrorist organization in Northern Iraq. Terrorists sent them back three days later when they found out the girls were "underage." A lawsuit was filed against the girls on charges of PKK membership and the prosecutor said in his indictment that the children admitted to the charges and although there was no evidence that they engaged in acts of terror, they were "included in the hierarchy of the organization." The court will now decide whether the children are eligible for prosecution as they are below the legal age of criminal responsibility. In 2014, a sit-in was held where dozens of families protested their children's "forced" recruitment by the PKK.