Democratization initiative offers boy hope of reunion with parents

The eyes of his paternal grandmother, Mekiye İpek, are also shining. “I always prayed to God for the return of my son and my daughter-in-law. I was collecting apples; then I saw the TV, and I heard that my son is coming. Since then I have been so happy,” she says.

Aslan's father and İpek's son, Hüseyin İpek, is one of eight members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who returned home from the mountains of northern Iraq on Monday at the request of Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the PKK, who is serving a life sentence on İmralı Island in the Sea of Marmara. They joined a group of 26 people from Makhmur refugee camp, a hotbed for the PKK according to Ankara.

The move has been considered groundbreaking and may lead to the PKK laying down arms and therefore strengthening the hand of the government in its recently launched democratization initiative to end the country's decades-old Kurdish problem.

It served also to reunite young Aslan, who spent 14 years of his 15-year life away from his parents, with his father.

According to Mekiye İpek, her son was sent to prison when his wife, Hülya, was pregnant “for political reasons.” Then Aslan was born. His mother went to the mountains to join the PKK when Aslan was just a year old.

"When my father was released from prison, he spent some time with me. I was one-and-a-half years old when he left for the mountains," Aslan says.

His maternal grandparents cared for him and officially registered him as being their biological child, which is why his surname is Aslan.

Both the İpek and Aslan families are from Mardin's Ömerli village, but they moved to Adana due to security reasons.

Aslan says that his grandfather died when he was very young, and one of his uncles went to the mountains, too. So he was left alone with his grandmother. They tried to make a living while working in the fruit fields. Aslan is now in the sixth grade and works at a barber shop.

“We plan to play soccer and work together with my father,” he says.

But “to work” has another meaning for him. “I knew that my parents were in the mountains, but they were trying to hide this from me. Sometimes my mother would call me on the telephone and would tell me that they were working, but I knew the truth,” he says.

Aslan's maternal grandmother, Ruhiye Aslan, adds: “He used to call us mother and father, but when he grew up a little bit, we told him that we are not his parents and informed him that his real parents were abroad for work. Then when he was a little older we told him that his parents were actually militants.”

“My mother will return also, she will be one of the 150,” Habat Aslan says, referring to the expected return of another 150 PKK members.

Interior Minister Beşir Atalay, the coordinator of the government's democratization initiative, said on Tuesday that they are expecting the return of another 100 to 150 PKK members in small groups.

“I want to point out openly that the people in the mountains are also realizing that they are at a dead end. We, as the Turkish Republic, want to end terrorism. All elements in the state are decisively in agreement on this,” Atalay had said.

Ruhiye Aslan also waits for her daughter to return: “When I saw my son-in-law, I was as happy as if I saw my daughter; I gave him a big hug and prayed to God to let me hug my daughter, too,” she says.

But they have only seen Hüseyin İpek for 10 minutes since his return because İpek has had to participate in many rallies, like the big one in Diyarbakır to celebrate their arrival. It is not clear yet what the group will do now. They brought letters for President Abdullah Gül, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Şahin.

Until it is clear what the next step is politically, the families must either wait at home to celebrate the return of their loved ones or wait at the Diyarbakır headquarters of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) to see their sons and daughters.

Other families and mothers are still waiting there to learn anything they can about their sons and daughters; they are congratulating the İpek and Aslan families and hoping for the same outcome for themselves.

One of them is Meryem Gündem, sitting opposite Mekiye İpek, and frequently smiling at them. “My daughter was 16 years old when she left eight years ago. I am here to ask the ones who returned if they know anything about her. But I think she is alive, although she has never called since she left, but if something had happened to her, I think I would have heard it,” she says.

Habat Aslan holds a newspaper clipping, a front-page photo of the eight PKK members who returned from the mountains. He points to one of them. “He is my father; I was able to recognize him when I first saw him. He gave me a very big hug,” he says, adding: “I have been told that he will not be able to be with us for a week, but then he will be with us. I missed him a lot; I missed my mother, too, but I can wait for a while [for her return].”