Three children en route to PKK camps captured during raid in Hakkari

Three children that were allegedly being brought to the camps of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were captured during a police raid in the eastern province of Hakkari’s Yüksekova district June 5 amid a row over children being “abducted” by the organization.

Three girls, including two minors, were found in the address raided. Two women who were supervising them were taken into custody. The police said the operation targeted people suspected of providing militants for the PKK.

Two of the children are said to be the daughters of two mothers who have been demonstrating in a sit-in protest in front of the Diyarbakır Municipality.

Families are continuing their action to demand the return of their children for more than a month as the political debate on the issue grows. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issued ultimatum-like calls to the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and its sister party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), to effect the return of the children from the PKK.

Erdoğan said the government had “plans B and C” in the case that the predominantly Kurdish parties fail to answer his call while BDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş accused Erdoğan of pushing youth to join the PKK with his rhetoric.