ANKARA

The terrorist group PKK, and its offshoots including the YPG, continue to recruit children by abducting them in violation of various international conventions and regulations.

• Mother desperate to reunite with child kidnapped by US-backed PKK/YPG terrorists in northern Syria
• US-backed PKK/YPG terrorist group continues to kidnap children to recruit them as ‘child fighters’
• Syrian mother wants her son back after he was kidnapped by US-backed PKK/YPG

It is against international laws, particularly the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, but the terror group continues to recruit minors, and takes away their right to live.

Although an agreement was signed between the UN and terrorist Ferhat Abdi Sahin, codenamed Mazlum Abdi, one of the PKK's ringleaders, in June 2019 in Geneva to release "child fighters within the organization," it continues this criminal practice by taking away children from their families.

Fill the gap with children

The average age of a child in the terrorist organization is 15, according to security sources, and due to a decrease in the number of volunteers in recent years, the group strives to fill the gap by recruiting minors.

While the young are recruited through deception, coercion and abduction methods, the group also promises salaries to children and families who are facing economic difficulties in Iraq and Syria.

According to sources, the PKK takes the children forcibly under the name of "tax obligation," and tries to ensure that at least one person from each family joins under "compulsory military service."

The group's "Revolutionary Youth" wing, said to be operated from Syria, ensures children's participation by forcibly detaining or kidnapping them.

Sexual abuse of girls

Terrorists also sexually abuse minor girls, many of whom have died while trying to escape from the terror camps, or from suicide and diseases, sources said.

According to insiders, "training" provided by the terrorist organization to children lasts approximately nine months, and in order to avoid international scrutiny, the trainees are registered with false names and identity information.

Training centers

Training centers of the terrorist organization in Syria are as follows:

Youth Center (Tel Rifat district), Gelhat Academy (An-Nasiriyah region), Training Center (Tishrin region/Raqqa province), As-Sad Education Center (Manbij), Qom Aftar/Logistics Headquarters (Qom Aftar), Headquarters-Orphanage (Aynularab district), Children's Ideological Education Center (Aynularab), Apocu Fedai Team Headquarters (Aynularab), S. Heavy Battalion (Tabqa district/Raqqa), 17th Division (Raqqa), Children's Battalion (Tel Temir town/Hasakah province), S. Ugur Kaymaz Academy (Hasakah), Kabakah Education Center, Tel Mozan Education Center (Amude district/Hasake), Es-Sabha Education Center (Deir ez-Zor province), Al-Basira Education Center (Deir ez-Zor), Children's Ideological Education Center (el-Muabbede town/ Hasakah), Compulsory Recruitment Center (Qahtaniye town/Hasake), Children's Ideological Education Center (Malikiye district/Hasake), Children's Ideological Education Center (Ayn al-Hadra/Hasake), Ayn Youth Battalion (Ayn al-Hadra), Sabotage Academy (Gir Kendal/Haseke).

Reaction from locals

The forcible recruitment of children recently triggered serious reactions among Syrians, with the public organizing protests. The terrorist organization, however, suppressed the demonstrations through violence.

Some of the families whose children were detained appealed to international organizations to bring their children back.

International bodies periodically reached out to the PKK/YPG, which goes by the name SDF in Syria, and demanded that the children's locations be reported and they be handed over to their families.

International reports

The terror organization's recruitment of children has also been mentioned in many international reports.

In the US government's Trafficking in Persons Report in 2016, it was emphasized that "PKK's Syrian branch, PYD/YPG, continues to recruit and use boys and girls, including children under the age of 15, as members of the organization and taking them to training camps."

In the 2014 Human Rights Practices country report by the US State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, under the title Child Soldiers it was said the PKK regularly recruits children, but the number is not known.

In the Children and Armed Conflict report by the UN secretary-general to the Security Council in June 2015, it was stated that "girls and boys under the age of 15 were recruited by YPG/YPJ and used in war zones."

The UN, in its annual Children and Armed Conflict for the period of January-December 2022, said more than 1,200 children had been used as soldiers by the organization.

According to the publication, the Syrian branch of the PKK, the SDF, had recruited 637 children, while the PKK/YPG and SDF-affiliated organizations listed 633 children to their armed staff.

UNICEF initiatives

The UN Children's Fund, or UNICEF, in June 2014 said it is "deeply concerned about the news that children are among the ranks of the PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization by the international community. The use of children by armed forces and terrorist groups is against international law."

The Human Rights Watch also recorded in its June 2014 report that "YPG recruited children."