The abduction and exploitation of women by the PKK continues with the latest incident revealing that a young woman named Leyla Güneş was shot by PKK terrorists and survived death while trying to escape the terrorist organization last week.
Yet, similar to many other cases of abuse of women, Güneş’s story was not covered in Western media, which overlooks PKK abuses and tends to glorify the PKK and other terrorist organizations affiliated to it, such as the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia, by portraying violations of human rights as freedom fighting women.
Güneş, who was brainwashed into joining the PKK three years ago, was saved from the terrorist organization and reunited with her family. She was only 15 when the PKK reached out to her and her friends when they were picnicking. Her mother tried to contact her and other PKK members in order to have her released, but failed each time. Three months ago, however, Güneş decided to surrender to security forces. Yet, when Güneş began running toward the military units who came for her, to surrender, other militants in a cave threw grenades at her before shooting her.
Thought to be dead after security forces killed the other militants, Güneş was sent to a hospital morgue until it was realized that she was still alive. Now Güneş suffers from memory loss and receives psychological treatment to recover her three lost years.
Güneş is only one example of dozens of young women who suffer from similar exploitation in PKK ranks. There are many reports from surrendered female terrorists, saying that they were forced to fight against Turkey.
A video the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) released in May shows another young woman from the PKK, Zehra K., who also surrendered, and who in another video says that she was fooled by the terrorist organization: “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 forced me into this, but what I understand [now] is that they should take refuge in the state.”
In addition to abduction, it are also several cases in which the husbands of kidnapped women have had their lives threatened while the women were facing several abuses, including rape.
The book “The Escape to Freedom,” which was written in the 2000s by a women who escaped from the PKK, reveals her and other women’s experiences while in the terrorist organization. Joining the PKK when she was 13, Dilaram (a pseudonym) says in the book that even the women who joined voluntarily eventually find that they are oppressed and abused and are unable to leave. Even if they want to escape, there is a high possibility that they will be executed. An example is the story of five female PKK members who were claimed have been consumed by toxic fumes released from a generator in 2011, but turned out to have actually been executed.
REPORTS REVEAL EVIDENCES OF PKK ABUSE
An Interior Ministry report in February, “Exploitation of Children and Women by PKK/KCK [Kurdistan Communities Union] Terrorist Organization,” cites several cases of abuse of women and children, but also points to other reports from international organizations concerning the issue.
Reports by Human Rights Watch, for instance, say that the YPG uses children under the age of 18 and the PYD and YPG does not deliver its commitment to discharge child soldiers, similar to reports from the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry. A Human Rights Watch report with several interviews with families says that any children appeared in PYD youth centers without the knowledge of their families and afterwards, no communication was available with them and families figured that their children joined or were forcibly recruited at a later time.
“In May 2015, the YPG and the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) announced compulsory ‘self-defence duty’ for all those aged 18 and older in the Kurdish canton of Afrin in the northern part of the Aleppo Governorate; however, in April 2015, a 16-year-old girl in Aleppo was allegedly recruited by the YPJ against the wishes of her family,” the U.S. State Department June 2016 “Trafficking in Persons Report” says.
