The PKK/YPG, a terrorist organization supported by the United States of America (USA) in Syria, continues the practice of forced recruitment of children in the occupied territories, reports Anadolu.
Despite the action plan signed at the Geneva office of the United Nations (UN) in June 2019 with Ferhat Abdi Sahin, codenamed “Mazlum Abdi”, one of the leaders of the PKK/YPG, “for the release of child warriors within the organization”, the terrorist organization continues this practice.
The terrorist organization kidnaps school-aged children in the areas it has occupied in Syria, especially on the way to school, and forcibly recruits them into its armed forces.
The PKK/YPG, which takes the children it kidnapped and detained to camps for armed training, does not allow them to communicate with their families.
Children who are forced into armed training are used in the organization’s terrorist activities.
Pictures and news about “child warriors” also appear in the so-called media bodies of the terrorist organization.
– 18 children kidnapped in July-
According to the Kurdish opposition group “Independent Kurdish League”, PKK/YPG terrorists kidnapped another 18 children between the ages of 14 and 17 in July, six from Hasakah province, seven from Kamishli district and five from Aleppo province, and took them to so-called camps for training.
Sabah Anter, whose daughter was abducted by terrorists two years ago in the PKK/YPG-occupied Qamisli district of northeastern Syria, said in a statement to the . reporter on August 3,
“They had classes at school. It was four days since classes started and then I lost contact. I went to the security forces and the UN office in the region and protested about this situation. I contacted everyone, but I couldn’t find my daughter. “My daughter was young. She was kidnapped by an organization when she was only 16 years old. My daughter was homeschooled with her siblings. She wanted to be a teacher,” Anter said.
– Tombstones in Kobani reveal that the PKK/YPG used children-
On the recordings of the . cemetery where members of the terrorist organization were buried in June 2022, it is noticeable that there are many children between the ages of 14 and 17, judging by the information on the tombstones in Arabic and Kurdish.
Tombstones found in the PKK/YPG-occupied Aynularab district (Kobani) show that the terrorist organization involved children who were separated from their families into violence.
Speaking of democracy and human rights, the US continues to increase its cooperation in Syria with the PKK/YPG, which has a long record of terrorist crimes.
The US provides TOW missiles, rocket launchers, military vehicles, light and heavy infantry weapons, and financial and political support to the organization that uses hundreds of children in its ranks.
– International organizations also document the PKK/YPG practice of forced child recruitment-
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ Special Representative for “Children in Armed Conflict”, Virginia Gamba, met at the UN Office in Geneva on 29 June 2019 with Ferhat Abdi Sahin, codenamed “Mazlum Abdi”, one of the leaders of the PKK/YPG and then, at the official ceremony, an action plan for “releasing child warriors within the organization” was signed. Turkiye sent a note of protest to the UN on this issue.
In its report released on January 16, 2020, the UN Human Rights Council shared evidence that PKK/YPG terrorists have used children as “warriors” in Syria.
The recruitment of children to fight by the terrorist organization PKK/YPG was also put on the agenda of the “2020 Trafficking in Persons Report” published by the US State Department on June 26, 2020.
“The YPG continued to forcibly recruit and use even 12-year-old girls and boys from refugee camps in northwestern Syria,” the report said.
In the annual report “Children in armed conflicts” prepared by the UN for the period January-December 2022, it was stated that the terrorist organization PKK and its Syrian extensions SDF and YPG used more than 1,200 children as “soldiers” during 2022.
The report stated that the Syrian branch of the PKK, the SDF, recruited 637 children, and structures affiliated with the PKK/YPG and the SDF recruited 633 children.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose statement is included in the report, said: “I am extremely concerned about the use of children as soldiers by the HPG/PKK. I call on them to stop using children as soldiers and for various purposes and to release all children into in their ranks.”
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