People’s Defense Center (HSM) Headquarters Command issued a written statement regarding a recent report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) which claimed there were child soldiers in the ranks of the Kurdish movement.

HRW claimed in a report two days ago that armed groups affiliated to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have recruited boys and girls, and that these groups sent children into direct combat, placing them at risk by training them in areas that Turkey has attacked with airstrikes in its conflict with the PKK, such as Iraq’s Qandil mountain area.

“First of all, we would like to state that we are deeply saddened as a well-known human rights organisation like HRW has been an instrument to such a scenario that has nothing to do with the truth”, HSM said.

“NO FIGHTER IN OUR RANKS IS AGED UNDER 16”

The statement by HSM Headquarters Command recalled that:

"When ISIS gangs attempted a genocide in Shengal on August 3, 2014, HPG forces, taking all the risks, intervened the massacre in Shengal, saved Shengal and its people from a bigger massacre, rescued 150 thousand Êzidî people from Shengal and transferred them into Rojava safely in a major rescue operation that couldn't be managed by states even.

As HPG forces considering ourselves responsible to protect the people of Kurdistan against all attacks, we see this human and moral duty as a requirement of our mission."

HSM underlined that many circles and forces were, however, disturbed by this success of the HPG that started the process of defeating the ISIS.

HSM also called attention to the fabricated news spread by various circles to shadow this positive image created by the HPG and the Kurdish movement in Kurdistan and international community.

The statement underlined that: "In addition, these circles are running a smear campaign against the Kurdish movement and its defense forces HPG by means of trumped up scenarios in order for the expulsion of the HPG from Shengal area and South Kurdistan. The trumped up conjecture that HPG recruits child soldiers is a part of this scenario.

As HPG, we became a party to the Geneva Call and the Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict in 2013.

Despite the rare participation of underage youths in our ranks without our approval, our movement has laid emphasis on this issue and made efforts to fulfill the convention we are a party to. There are no fighters aged under 16 in our ranks. Those youths aged 16-17 who were forced to join our ranks after fleeing the repression and violence of the Turkish state are not involved in the battle by our movement, and these are receiving training in areas outside the battle field."

"WE STRICTLY ABIDE BY ALL THE AGREEMENTS WITH INTERNATIONAL POWERS"

HSM Command emphasised that they strictly abide by all the agreements they made with international powers, including the Geneva Call that even conducted on-site examinations in PKK camps.

HSM reiterated that they were open to the inspection of all relevant international powers, adding: "We have not received any letter or report prepared on us. Still, if HRW has conducted a research on this matter in South Kurdistan, and prepared a report on it, they should have visited our camps and examined on-site instead.

That HRW did not do so, that they instead visited a YBŞ camp in Shengal and prepared a report there, and that they bring our movement under suspicion is a serious misfortune for an organisation that is meant to conserve its impartiality in international terms. YBŞ is an organization that emerged during the process of the defense of Êzidî people and has no organic ties with us, which makes it itself responsible for what it has done. As the PKK and HPG that pay attention to international norms within our own system, we recommend that the other friend organisations also show the same treatment but we cannot be held responsible for what these organisations are doing."

HSM also criticised the K24 TV, which introduces itself as a Kurdistanî media organ, that widely covered this fabricated news without taking the opinion of the Kurdish movement as to what the truth is. HSM commented the contribution the K24 TV made to this smear campaign as unethical.

HSM concluded the statement by reiterating that the reports on Kurdish movement's recruitment of child soldiers from Shengal and South Kurdistan are completely fabricated and have nothing to do with the truth.

The statement added that the Kurdish movement pledged to abide by its own principles and international laws under all circumstances.