At least 47 percent of the predominantly Kurdish-populated areas are made up of Benjamin Buttons.They are the children of large families, with most of them born into poverty. Since the day they were born, they haven't had the privileges that all children should have. They don't have any hopes for the future. They have to act as completely responsible adults in order to survive; sometimes they even have to work to earn their bread. They have to shoulder the burden of the political situation. Most of the time they are the children of families who have migrated from villages to cities. They have witnessed village evacuations, extrajudicial killings, clashes, conflicts and abductions. They are the children of unemployed parents. In short, they were born as Benjamin Buttons.
Observing their lives does not provide any pleasure or hope at all; quite the contrary, just thinking about them makes me fear the future with every cell of my being. To consider that at least 800 of them are in custody -- standing before the courts, facing trials with indictments that are asking for prison terms the equivalent of several times their ages -- makes me feel almost as if I'm being suffocated.
The real adults of this country are normally dressed in green; those who think they are the owners of everything, that the people don't have the maturity to govern themselves and that if the people are allowed their freedoms they will either become members of religious communities or separatists don't merely force babies to be born as Benjamin Buttons. Contrary to the main principles of international law, legitimacy and humanity, those same people made amendments to the anti-terror laws in the year 2006 and decided that children should be seen as adults in the eyes of the law.
Article 13 of the Anti-Terror Law indicates that juveniles above the age of 15 should be considered adults and be tried as adults in the special courts that were established to replace the State Security Courts (DGM). For many young people this means long years in prison and being denied many rights, including education.
It is impossible not to wonder what the aim of all these regulations that consider children as adults could be. Are those who are making these regulations really hoping that putting our youths in prisons will make them youthful again -- or will they, instead, become devoted militants? Will they grow up to be peace-loving, productive citizens or will they be adults filled with disappointment and anger? Logic, the principles of sociology and the experience of humankind suggest the darker of these options. Thus it is impossible not to ask another question: Do they really want to fight with terrorism or do they want to ensure the continuation of it, in order to claim dominion over the people, the country and all things?
This country has always been so proud of how it treats its children. Next week we will hear many fancy speeches about how we love children, how important they are, how we were the first country to devote a day to them and the like. We will make some of them take the seats of the president, prime minister, ministers and governors; we will ask for their orders, and we will listen to their responses with big smiles on our faces; meanwhile, as we are playing this hypocritical game, we will forget the fact that we made them sit in the seats of the terrorists a long time ago.
If the adults are sincere about how important children are for us, there is a golden opportunity to prove it on the coming April 23, National Sovereignty and Children's Day. They can make the necessary amendments to laws and regulations that will have juveniles considered as juveniles in the eyes of the law, respecting their identities and all that they entail. Furthermore, they can make sure that in events such as demonstrations juveniles are handled by special police trained to deal with them, not the regular police forces, that they are taken into custody at juvenile departments, and that they have access to their families and lawyers.
Perhaps we are unable to supply them with a bright future, but the least we can do is give them justice since we steal their childhoods and force them to be born as Benjamin Buttons. Unfortunately, unlike Benjamin Button, even when they have spent many more years on this earth, they will never be children again.
