We like children; what a lie!

Seen from outside, it is great to be a child in Turkey.

But only when seen from outside.

This country likes its children.

Here children are the center of life.

This is the only country where a special holiday has been declared just for children.

It?s a place where advice such as ?Have children, have three children, have five children? never ends.

But this country?s people love its children in a superficial, very superficial way.

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Our love for children is wrapped in hypocrisy.

I wonder what sort of a love for children this is.

This country is full of children who cannot get up from poverty, pain, sickness and death.

This is a country where children are chased away with curses when they are begging or selling Kleenex in the streets or approaching cars to wipe their windows.

Our love for children is as much as those who say ?the municipality should gather them.? 

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This is the country where 14,000 children a year face a judge.  

This is a country where children are tried in high criminal courts.

This is a country where 120,000 children get familiar with the justice system.

This is a country where its prisons are full of children.

Children are beaten, raped, locked in solitary confinement or left without food or drink as punishment in the prisons of this country.

One-fifth of the children who leave prison have no place to go. More than half go back to prison. This country does not love its children enough to reintegrate them into society.

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In this country, children are separated as Turks and Kurds, gunned down because they are labeled a ?terrorist.? They are taken under detention. They...

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