PKK terror group uses children for black propaganda

By Hasan Namli

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey

The PKK terror group is making black propaganda against Turkey's ongoing Operation Olive Branch in Syria by using photographs of children from unrelated events on social media.

On Saturday, Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch to clear PKK/KCK/PYD-YPG and Daesh terrorists from Afrin, northwestern Syria. Since then a smear campaign has begun against it.

Some photographs, which were supposedly taken during the operation in Afrin, turned out to be old photographs that were taken during past incidents.

The PYD/PKK, the Syrian offshoot of the PKK which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU, is known for its attacks which killed hundreds of children in Turkey and Syria.

In 1993, the PKK shot dead 22 people, including 13 children, in Derince village of Siirt, in southeastern Turkey. The photograph of three-year-old Serkan Erden has never been forgotten after 25 years.

The latest victim of the terrorist group is 16-year-old Eren Bulbul.

On Aug. 11, 2017, Bulbul was killed in a PKK attack in Macka district of the northeastern Trabzon province, when he was showing a terrorist hideout to security forces.

Some victims of the terrorist group since 2014:

- On Oct. 5, 2014, 16-year-old Yasin Boru and his friends, Ahmet Dakak, Riyat Gunes and Hasan Gokguz, who were distributing food aid to Syrian refugees, were chased down and lynched by alleged pro-PKK supporters on the second day of Eid al-Adha.

- On Aug. 30, 2015, 13-year-old Firat Simpil in southeastern Silvan district was killed in a roadside bomb blast blamed on the PKK terror group in Diyarbakir. The bomb device was believed to have been placed to target a military vehicle.

- On Sept. 12, 2015, two children were seriously injured in the southeastern province of Mardin after an explosive was left by PKK terrorists on the roof of a house; 9-year-old Tahsin Uray, one of the two children injured, later succumbed to his injuries at hospital.

- On Sept. 28, 2015, 9-year-old Elif Simsek died after a rocket fired by PKK terrorists on an armed police vehicle missed its target and hit her apartment building in Diyarbakir's Bismil district.

- On Oct. 8, 2015, 9-year-old Hasan Yilmaz was killed while playing with a rocket projectile left close to a school in southeastern Silvan district. Another four children aged 6 to 10 were injured in the incident.

- On Dec. 25, 2015, four children were wounded in an attack on the Sirnak Cultural Center and Public Library in southeastern Turkey.

- On. Jan. 13, 2016, one-year-old Ecrin Acikgoz, four-year-old Mevlude Irem Ciftci, and 10-year-old Murat Alper Acikgoz were killed in an attack on the district police department building and its housing complex in Cinar district of Diyarbakir.

- On Feb. 17, 2017, 11-year-old Ahmet Oktay Gunak was killed in a car bomb attack in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa.

- On March 13, 2016, the PKK terrorists attacked capital Ankara's central Kizilay square using a bomb-laden car; 36 people were killed, 125 others injured. Among the wounded were 6-month pregnant Songul Yilmaz and her baby was the youngest victim of the terrorists; 15-year-old Eray Ozyol and 16-year-old Destina Parlak were also among the victims.

- On March 30, 2017, three-year-old Havin and five-year-old Fatih Gunes were killed in a PKK bomb attack in southeastern Mardin province.

- On April 13, 2017, four-year-old Hidayet Tek was killed after an improvised device explosion in Turkey's southeastern province of Sirnak.

- On Aug. 11, 2017, three-year-old Ceylin Naz Aydin and eight-year-old Oguz Kaan were killed in a bomb attack in Diyarbakir.

- On Aug. 15, 2017, police officer Ahmet Gulbahar and his five-year-old son Huseyin Utku were killed in an attack in Diyarbakir.

The PKK, which has killed children brutally, also forcedly recruits thousands of children. When a group of children, aged 14 and 16, were taken by the PKK during a picnic in Diyarbakir’s Lice district, some families began a sit-in protest against the terrorist group.

Other families whose children were kidnapped by the terrorist group also joined the Bokcun family in their protest in front of the Diyarbakir metropolitan municipality.