By Esref Musa
TAL ABYAD, Syria (AA) - A mother whose son was kidnapped six years ago by the US-supported terrorist group PKK/YPG in northeastern Syria desperately wants to be reunited with him before she passes away.
Against all international human rights norms, the terrorist PKK/YPG continues its practice of kidnapping children and forcibly recruiting them in the regions it occupies in Syria.
The US-backed terrorist group, which kidnaps and detains children and takes them to camps for armed training, does not allow these children to communicate with their families.
Alaa al-Khalil, who was kidnapped when she was only 14 during the PKK/YPG occupation of Tel Abyad in the Raqqa province in 2017, is one of the many victims of the terrorist group.
Speaking to Anadolu, Alaa’s mother Duhayye al-Khalil said her son was kidnapped by the terrorist group when he was going to school.
“He went to school. He didn't come back. I searched for so long. They (the PKK/YPG) lied and said that they didn’t have him. Twelve days after my son was kidnapped, his father passed away from sadness,” she said.
“He was my youngest son, he was very delicate. No one has seen him for six years, and we haven’t heard the slightest news from anyone. I also got sick thinking about him,” she added.
Kahlil said that she does not know whether her son is alive or not.
- 'Your son is in the mountains. Forget him’
Khalil said that she started to have vision problems due to crying too much.
“Believe it or not, we haven’t cooked any meal with meat on any holiday for six years. We have two pieces of his clothing left. I'm keeping them. I dive into memories by looking at them,” she explained.
“He loved sweets so much and was very fond of them. Since that day, I haven’t allowed any candy or sweets into my house. I think about him so much that I forgot that I have another son,” she added.
Khalil said that with the start of Türkiye’s anti-terror operation Peace Spring in October 2019, near the Turkish borders, she again asked terrorists who gathered near her house about the fate of her son.
"They told me 'Your son is in the mountains. Forget him’,” she said.
“I want my son. If he’s alive, I want him. If he’s dead, I want news about him. I want to see my son before I close my eyes to this world,” she said.
- International organizations document PKK/YPG's practice of forcibly recruiting children
Beyond the pain of a mother yearning for her kidnapped son, there is ample evidence from the UN and other global platforms that the terrorist PKK kidnaps children and uses them as fighters, violating a host of international laws.
For instance, the UN Human Rights Council revealed in a report released on Jan. 16, 2020 that PKK/YPG terrorists are using children as "fighters" in Syria.
The fact that the terror group forces children to fight was also mentioned in the 2020 Human Trafficking Report released by the US State Department in June 2020.
The YPG continued to forcibly recruit and use even 12-year-old boys and girls from asylum camps in northwestern Syria, the report said.
The UN’s Children in Annual Armed Conflicts report for January-December 2022 said that more than 1,200 children had been used as "soldiers" in 2022 by the terrorist group PKK and its Syrian offshoots, the SDF and YPG.
According to the report, the Syrian branch of the PKK, the SDF, recruited 637 children, while the PKK/YPG and SDF-affiliated groups recruited 633 children to their armed staff.
In the report, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed how “extremely concerned” he feels about the use of children as "soldiers" by the PKK/YPG.
“I invite them to stop using children as soldiers and for different purposes and release all the children in their ranks,” the report quoted him as saying.
In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK — listed as a terrorist group by Türkiye, the US, and the EU — has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is the terrorist PKK's Syrian branch.
Against strong objections by Türkiye, for years the US has supported the PKK/YPG in northern Syria, claiming that the terrorist group helps it fight Daesh/ISIS terrorists. Pointing to the PKK/YPG’s long list of terrorist attacks and human rights violations, Turkish officials have said that using one terrorist group to fight another makes no sense.