Young (eyes covered) kid holding a machine gun. Photo: Zainab Termos/Al Mayadeen.
By Sara Salloum – Jun 7, 2024
Hardly a week goes by without pictures emerging of residents in al-Hasakah Governorate protesting outside the [Syrian Democratic Forces] SDF military headquarters. They demand the release of their minor children, who have been kidnapped and forcibly recruited by the “Revolutionary Youth” organization, affiliated with the “Democratic Union Party.”
The arm of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which operates in the regions of northeastern Syria and parts of the city of Aleppo and the Manbij region, is under the control of the so-called Kurdish “self-administration”.
Two years saw an 80% increase in percentage of children recruited by SDF militias
Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, submitted a report to the UN Security Council at the end of last year in which he said that “2990 children between the ages of 9 and 17 had been recruited in Syria, 829 of whom were recruited by the SDF militias.”
Guterres noted in his report that the SDF militias signed an agreement in 2019 with the United Nations under which they pledged to end the recruitment of those under the age of 18, and for this purpose, they opened offices in the areas under their control, “but the number of children recruited by the SDF and PYD militants increased by 80% over the past two years.”
The SDF militia has admitted more than once, through what it calls the “Child Protection Office,” to receiving complaints from the families of children who were forcibly recruited. According to the office’s latest data, in 2021, 106 complaints were received from parents of minors, of whom 36 children were returned.
Despite this clear recognition, and at a time when the number of forcibly recruited children is increasing, international organizations working in areas controlled by the SDF militias have not done anything yet.
‘I don’t want my daughter to die for a fake cause’
“They kidnap our children and then prevent us from holding any protest or demonstration. They also arrest activists and beat us.” With this phrase, Mrs. Balshen (a pseudonym) began her speech to Al Mayadeen English before adding, “I have three children, two boys and one girl, who is 14 years old. She was kidnapped by members of the Revolutionary Youth Organization when she returned home from school. In the first period, I didn’t know anything about her, but I later learned that she had been transferred to one of the remote training camps, where they teach my daughter the Kurdistan Workers Party doctrine, and they are training her to use weapons.”
The “Youth City Center” in the center of the city of Qamishli is the main headquarters for attracting and transporting minors and children who are kidnapped for the purpose of recruitment, many of whom are lured through social media sites, according to the woman who explained, “Our children are teenagers and are tempted by claims of a glamorous life, luxury, and independence, which in their view is nothing but freedom from parental control and what they call freedom from any religious control. I literally went crazy when I found captioned photos of her with a group of girls on Facebook: “strong as war, gentle as peace.”
Tears streamed down the face of the forty-year-old woman as she said, “I don’t want my daughter to die for a fake cause. I don’t want to see her picture on a tombstone.”
‘I just want to see my daughter’
Umm Muhammad had no idea that Mother’s Day would be the last day she would spend with her daughter Tala before her sudden disappearance. The forty-year-old woman recounted her experience to Al Mayadeen in English,
“My daughter never mentioned anything to me. When she didn’t come home, I sought help from my brothers, as my husband had passed away. We asked her friends and inquired at the Revolutionary Youth centers but received no answers. Later, we found out that she had been lured to the city of Qamishli by two girls under the pretext of attending Mother’s Day events. She was then taken to a camp in al-Malikiya where she is being held with other minors under heavy guard to prevent their escape.”
Umm Muhammad faced numerous threats and pressure due to speaking to the media about her daughter, but she remains determined to continue until she sees her daughter again. She concluded her speech by saying:
“What I want is to see my daughter and visit her. Let her go wherever she wants, but not to be hidden away like this. I cannot accept that.”
