Onder Aytac the head of the Center for Study of International Development Strategies (CSIDS)
A report by the International Terrorism and Transnational Crime Research
Center (UTSAM) says the PKK terrorist organization uses children as soldiers, Press
TV reports.
The Ankara-based UTSAM in a report has reviewed the physiological, psychological and social problems of child soldiers across the world, including those in Turkey.
According to the report, the armed separatist group of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is the main organization in Turkey that uses children as soldiers.
The report adds that about 3,000 children are believed to have been used
by the PKK in armed clashes since 1994, about 10 percent of whom have been
girls.
The PKK reportedly kidnapped several children between ten and twelve years of age in December 2011, in Turkey's southeastern province of Hakkari.
Turkish security and intelligence forces have acknowledged that the abducted children were taken to the PKK camps.
The PKK's reported move to use children as soldiers comes after tens of its members have recently surrendered to the Turkish security forces.
Experts say Turkey's move to increase public awareness by implementing educational programs through cooperation between police forces and teachers in the east and southeast of the country, has successfully blocked recruitment mechanisms of the PKK.
“The uncovering of the true face of the terror organization has created serious problems for its recruitment of new members so it has resorted to deceiving under aged people and children through different ways to take them to the mountains for armed operations,” Onder Aytac the head of the Center for Study of International Development Strategies (CSIDS) told Press TV.
The PKK has been for long accused of triggering protests and clashes in southeastern Turkey, mainly by encouraging children to throw stones and Molotov cocktails toward police forces.
Explaining the grave impacts of armed clashes on children, the report by the Ankara-based research center has called for an end to the issue of child soldiers in Turkey, noting that the problem is rarely mentioned whenever the violations of the children's rights are put on the agenda in the country.
Over 45,000 people have lost their lives since PKK terrorists launched an armed campaign against Ankara in 1984 in a quest to form an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey.
Turkey launched massive operations against the Kurdistan Workers' Party after the group killed 24 Turkish security forces in Hakkari province in October.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community, including Turkey, Iran, the European Union and the United States.
TNP/JR
via presstv.comThe PKK reportedly kidnapped several children between ten and twelve years of age in December 2011, in Turkey's southeastern province of Hakkari.
Turkish security and intelligence forces have acknowledged that the abducted children were taken to the PKK camps.
The PKK's reported move to use children as soldiers comes after tens of its members have recently surrendered to the Turkish security forces.
Experts say Turkey's move to increase public awareness by implementing educational programs through cooperation between police forces and teachers in the east and southeast of the country, has successfully blocked recruitment mechanisms of the PKK.
“The uncovering of the true face of the terror organization has created serious problems for its recruitment of new members so it has resorted to deceiving under aged people and children through different ways to take them to the mountains for armed operations,” Onder Aytac the head of the Center for Study of International Development Strategies (CSIDS) told Press TV.
The PKK has been for long accused of triggering protests and clashes in southeastern Turkey, mainly by encouraging children to throw stones and Molotov cocktails toward police forces.
Explaining the grave impacts of armed clashes on children, the report by the Ankara-based research center has called for an end to the issue of child soldiers in Turkey, noting that the problem is rarely mentioned whenever the violations of the children's rights are put on the agenda in the country.
Over 45,000 people have lost their lives since PKK terrorists launched an armed campaign against Ankara in 1984 in a quest to form an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey.
Turkey launched massive operations against the Kurdistan Workers' Party after the group killed 24 Turkish security forces in Hakkari province in October.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community, including Turkey, Iran, the European Union and the United States.
TNP/JR
