Braving snow, families continue anti-PKK protest in eastern Turkey

MUS, Turkiye

Braving heavy snow and biting cold, families whose children have been abducted or forcibly recruited by the PKK terrorist organization held a sit-in on Wednesday in Turkiye’s eastern province of Mus.

Since April 7, 2021, families have been staging a sit-in every week outside the Mus office of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), an opposition party which the Turkish government accuses of having links to the PKK terrorist organization.

The families carried photos of their children and banners that read "Mothers are resisting", "Enough is enough, leave our children" and "Get off our back."

The protesters urged their children to surrender to Turkish security forces.

In Turkiye, offenders linked to terrorist groups who surrender are eligible for possible sentence reductions under a repentance law.

A mother, Gulbahar Teker, demanded the release of her son from the PKK terrorist organization and HDP.

Urging her son to surrender, Teker said that the Turkish state is strong and she will continue to protest until her son comes back.

“I will continue to protest until the end. I will not leave until HDP returns my child,” another mother Sahinaz Ozcan said.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkiye, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the US and EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of at least 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.

* Writing by Zehra Nur Duz