16/11/04 21:49:03.85 .net
The international community is turning a blind eye to continued reports of the PKK and YPG recruiting child soldiers
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In Syria, the PKK’s Syrian affiliate, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its military wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG),
are also reported to be continuing to recruit child soldiers.
Of course, this information cannot be easily found in international media,
which often ignores negative stories on Kurdish militants and their abuse of children's rights.
In the past, the PKK even recruited children as young as 8-12 years.
In 2010, a Danish national daily newspaper, Berlingske Tidende, published a story about the PKK’s child soldiers.
According to that report, there were around 3,000 young militants in the PKK’s training camps.
The youngest child at the PKK training camps was eight or nine years old.
Last week, news emerged of the death of a notorious recruiter of child soldier, Latife Kaya, codenamed "Cahide", at the hands of the Miranda tribe in Derik,
Qamishli in Syria. Kaya had reportedly kidnaped a 17-year-old girl who belongs to one of the powerful families there, in a bid to recruit her for the PYD.
Kaya was wanted by the Turkish police for kidnapping and recruiting children to be child soldiers for more than 10 years.
She is accused of recruiting child soldiers for both the PKK and later the PYD in Syria's Qamishli and Afrin.
She and her collaborators have reportedly recruited more than 500 minor girls to join the PKK.