Police Detains Mothers Protesting Turkish Cadets’ Anguish in Jail
In a dramatic turn of events, Turkish law enforcement brutally detained a group of mothers protesting their sons’ — cadets — anguish in prison where they serve a life sentence.
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When, several weeks ago, the Turkish government gave a strong endorsement and publicity to a sit-in protest by a group of mothers in front of the regional office of the pro-Kurdish HDP in Diyarbakir to question their sons’ participation on mysterious grounds to PKK, it aimed to arouse a groundswell of public support against the militant organization’s widespread recruitment efforts in the region.
The sit-in protest by Kurdish mothers, who claim that their sons were forcefully kidnapped by the PKK to enlist them for its shrinking mountain manpower, has become a national matter, spurring swelling support for the mothers’ cause across the nation. By choosing the HDP’s office as the venue of protest, the ruling party also sought to discredit and vilify the Kurdish party in the eyes of the public by stressing the uncorroborated charge of direct affiliation between the PKK and the HDP.
But what the government did not anticipate was the unintended consequence that there were other mothers, who are seeking justice for their missing beloved ones and who demand justice for their sons as well. When they took inspiration from Diyarbakir mothers, they launched similar protests. They went to the offices of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Istanbul and Ankara to demand an answer to their plea.
But they faced a different kind of treatment at the hands of law enforcement and authorities as their quest exposed the moral hypocrisy of the politicians.
On Tuesday, a group of women, mothers of cadets who serve life sentence over the overblown charge of coup involvement, were detained by anti-riot police in Ankara. Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker Sezgin Tanrikulu expressed his dismay on Twitter, criticizing the detention of cadets’ mothers.
