Two surrendered terrorists were reunited with their families yesterday in southern Van province in an emotional atmosphere that caused the parties to burst into tears.

Convinced to leave the terrorist group by the security forces in Van, the two terrorists surrendered to authorities on Tuesday at the Şırnak Habur border gate.

"Our fight against the terrorist branch got in contact with Soreş, code-named A.K., through Facebook. Following the convincing attempts, he agreed to surrender alongside his friend Dijuwar, code-named M.K.," said a statement released by Van police department, calling for all the other terrorists in the mountains to return.

The parents of M.K. expressed their happiness over the reunion, saying they were reunited with their child 10 days into the convincing process.

"As parents who cry every day, we have finally smiled today. Let everyone (in the mountains) return. There are celebrations in our house," said the mother of the surrendered terrorists, expressing her hope for all mothers longing for their children to return.

The Interior Ministry recently launched a new initiative to urge abducted children to surrender to security forces. Families are involved in the process, informing security forces about their children while calling on the children to surrender. The initiative also ensures the children that as long as they do not commit any crimes in Turkey, they will not be charged and will be able to continue their lives once they testify. So far, 216 children have been saved from the PKK through this new initiative.

Currently, a sit-in protest of mothers has been going on in southeastern Diyarbakır province for more than 85 days. The mothers are demanding to be reunited with their children abducted by the PKK. Initially, a lone mother, Hacire Akar, started the protest in front of the offices of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) provincial organization in Diyarbakır in September. Akar wanted her 21-year-old son Mehmet Akar, who had been missing for three days after he was abducted by the PKK terrorist group, to be returned to her. Following her sit-in and with the help of security forces in Diyarbakır, Akar was finally reunited with her son. Now, 57 other families are seeking the same result.