Every day there is a new story on Web sites affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) about children who have been convicted of or are facing heavy penalties for participating in demonstrations. These stories are unfortunately accurate.But these same Web sites make no mention of the PKK’s child soldiers. But if ever they do, they praise them. According to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, the PKK has even had a battalion of children.
There are also other media organizations that publish stories about children who throw stones at security forces. Some of those stories suggest that these children can easily be “saved” if their families do not allow them to participate in demonstrations. According to these stories, the PKK pays for these children, which, if given a bit of candy, will return home.
Meanwhile, the government has yet to take any concrete steps to change the situation of these children, which face trial as adults under the Counterterrorism Law. Amending this law to postpone or commute these children’s sentences is impossible. Not only that, the Supreme Court of Appeals ruled in 2006 that “even if no membership in the illegal organization is identified, simply participating in a demonstration will be regarded as membership in the organization.”
In short, these children have been surrounded by the PKK, which does not hesitate to give them real guns but sheds crocodile tears when they are arrested for throwing stones. They’ve also been surrounded by some clueless people, who think giving these children candy will solve all problems. And then there is also the government, which is reluctant to solve problems facing children who come into conflict with the law despite the fact that it would take little effort. The solution to all this is painstakingly simple: Amend the Counterterrorism Law to say this law cannot be applied to children.
If there is a sincerity problem when it comes to children who run afoul of the Counterterrorism Law, it is because grownups do not want to solve the issue. This is because once they solve it, they will bring a heavy burden upon themselves.
According to researchers with the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, children are forcibly recruited into armed groups in many conflicts.
“The vast majority of child soldiers are adolescents between the age of 14 and 18 who ‘volunteer’ to join up,” says the coalition.
“However, research has shown that a number of factors may be involved in making the decision to actually join an armed conflict and in reality many such adolescents see few alternatives to enlisting. War itself is a major determinant. Economic, social, community and family structures are frequently ravaged by armed conflict and joining the ranks of the fighters is often the only means of survival. Many youths have reported that desire to avenge the killing of relatives or other violence arising from war is an important motive.
“Poverty and lack of access to educational or work opportunities are additional factors - with joining up often holding out either the promise or the reality of an income or a means of getting one. Coupled with this may be a desire for power, status or social recognition. Family and peer pressure to join up for ideological or political reasons or to honor family tradition may also be motivating factors. Girl soldiers have reported joining up to escape domestic servitude or enforced marriage or get away from domestic violence, exploitation and abuse.”
Well, if you think about all these factors that make children join armed conflicts, can you please tell me which ones cannot be a motive for children in the predominantly Kurdish areas of Turkey?
But, then again, thinking that if these children are volunteers they deserve to be punished is an oft-repeated mistake because whatever the conditions, any person who is under 18 and therefore not completely physical, mentally and emotionally developed is a child and deserves to be treated like a child by grownups who are aware of this reality.
The first thing adults should do is end their awful habit of stealing these children’s childhood.
