Families continue to demand return of children by PKK

DİYARBAKIR - Anadolu Agency

A scuffle erupted between the group and municipality workers. DHA Photo

A group that has been staging a sit-in protest in front of the Diyarbakır Municipality to demand that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) release their children, who recently joined the PKK, are continuing their protest across the road, following a scuffle with workers at the municipality.

The protest started with three mothers demanding that the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) mediate the release of their children, who are all high school students. According to Erhan Eren, one of the protesters, the number of people in the protest subsequently increased to 76, but this dropped to 47 after the group was harassed by municipality workers.

Fellow protester Sabri Önalan said his grandson was 19-years-old when he joined the PKK nine months ago, adding that he had come to Diyarbakır from the neighboring province of Bingol to lend support to the demonstration.

Önalan said municipality workers had started to plant flowers in the area in front of the municipality building in an attempt to move the protesters to a different space, so they crossed the road to continue their protest there. He added that the group had called Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) leader Selahattin Demirtaş to help them secure the return of their children.