The mothers of some fighters in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) called on Wednesday for an amnesty for their children and an end to decades of death, before a Turkish parliamentary commission overseeing the group’s disarmament.
“We mothers do not want to cry anymore. Let us bury weapons, not our children,” Nezahat Teke, a Kurdish mother speaking in broken Turkish, told lawmakers on behalf of a group called the “Peace Mothers”.
The commission, dubbed the National Solidarity, Fraternity and Democracy Commission, aims to set a path towards lasting peace, which would also resonate in neighboring Syria.
More than 40,000 people have been killed over four decades of conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK.
Rebia Kiran, another mother, asked lawmakers to adopt regulations shielding PKK members from lengthy prison sentences. “If you want peace, let them join politics instead of being locked away,” she said.
The calls for amnesty came a day after the commission heard some Turkish veterans and families of other victims call for PKK members to face legal accountability as part of the peace process.
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