The U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish YPG, a faction of the PKK terrorist group, continues to recruit and use child soldiers, constituting a serious violation of international human rights law, a Turkish researcher has revealed.
Kutluhan Görücü, a foreign policy researcher at the Turkish think-tank Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), stated that since its formation, the PKK/YPG has targeted children for indoctrination and forced recruitment. These children are often abducted and taken to the mountains of Turkey, northern Syria, and Iraq.
The U.N. categorizes individuals under 18 who engage in active combat as "child warriors." Görücü argued that the PKK/YPG has exploited children as young as nine, engaging them in combat and calling it child abuse. “The terrorist group has the highest number of child soldiers in its ranks,” he stated, referencing the recruitment of over 1,200 children in 2022 alone. Such numbers exceed even those of Daesh (ISIS).
The United Nations Children and Armed Conflict Report 2023 confirmed that the PKK/YPG, operating under the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) banner, forcibly recruited 231 children, while also being responsible for the deaths or injuries of eight children and the repurposing of schools and hospitals for military use.
The PKK, which began its terrorist campaign against Turkey in 1984, has left a legacy of violence and instability in southeastern Turkey, where over 40,000 people have died. Kurdish civilians, particularly children, have borne the brunt of PKK violence, losing family members to forced recruitment and their homes to bombings.
The PKK/YPG's Syrian branch took advantage of the chaos of the Syrian Civil War, seizing territories and resources with U.S. support. Early in the conflict, the YPG began using children to fill its ranks, a practice the group has admitted to, despite signing an agreement in 2019 with the U.N. to prevent the recruitment of children.
“The use of children by the PKK/YPG has been ongoing since the 1990s,” said Görücü. He pointed out two key reasons for this forced integration: the need for personnel and the ability to easily indoctrinate children with the group's radical leftist ideology, as their young minds are seen as more malleable. The group has primarily abducted Kurdish children, especially those from conservative families, to break their ties and indoctrinate them into their ideology.
In Syria, the PKK/YPG has also kidnapped Arab children, using them as hostages to maintain control over occupied areas and prevent local uprisings. Reports from people who fled the region have documented rampant abuse within PKK/YPG camps.
The U.N. verified 992 violations against children committed by the SDF and 896 by the YPG in 2023. Görücü further noted that the PKK/YPG’s university and youth branches carry out extensive propaganda to recruit children, even those too old for earlier recruitment.
Forced recruitment and use of child soldiers are direct violations of international law, classified as war crimes. Depriving children of their liberty and separating them from their families is also considered a crime against humanity.
Despite widespread reports from independent organizations about the active use of child soldiers by the PKK/YPG, Görücü expressed concern that the U.S. and Western media have largely ignored this issue due to their strategic alliance with the YPG in the fight against Daesh. The U.S. has frequently downplayed the PKK/YPG's use of child soldiers, further straining relations with NATO ally Turkey, which has condemned the use of child soldiers and human shields in combat.
As the YPG faces increasing pressure in northeastern Syria, there have been negotiations about the group’s future status in Syria. However, these talks have yielded little progress, as the YPG insists on maintaining autonomy and avoiding integration into Syria's national army.
“The PKK/YPG continues to actively recruit children,” Görücü said, stressing that these actions contradict their public assurances made before the Syrian revolution. He believes that, despite legal frameworks and U.N. provisions, the war crimes will persist unless the PKK’s existence is eliminated.
Source: Daily Sabah
Bd-pratidin English/ Jisan
