Surrendered PKK member testifies on ‘mistake’ in army-released video

ANKARA

A member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), who surrendered to security forces just days after a notebook belonging to her was found by security forces, has said the PKK forced her to fight against Turkey.

According to a video released by the Turkish Armed Forces on May 25, Zehra K. is among 25 PKK militants who surrendered to the army a day earlier in Mardin’s Nusaybin district. 

“My biggest mistake was to be fooled by the PKK. Because the PKK is burning both the Republic of Turkey and the Kurdish nation. So what I want to say to young people is that the organization [PKK] forced me into this but what I understand [now] is that they should take refuge in the state,” she is heard as saying in another video, which shows her meeting her parents.

“Personally I did not have any hope. We surrendered ourselves; if it was me I would fire bullets, but the state opened its arms to us even in a process like this, even in an environment like this. The state gave me every chance and never forced me to do anything. They treated me as best as they can. They treated me in a way they should not,” she said.

On May 16, in operations in Nusaybin, security forces found a notebook belonging to Zehra K. in which she admits to making a mistake in joining the PKK.

Then the notebook was handed to her parents and her father said she should surrender.