The music band Kent Şarkıları has just released its single album Çocuğun Düşü, the Child's Dream, which it dedicated to all kidnapped and disappeared children. The song, which hosts poet and writer Cezmi Ersöz reading a poem of his at the beginning, has also been supported by photographer Erdal Kınacı with a child-themed photograph of his. The Child's Dream aims to call public attention to the reality of disappeared children, a significant issue waiting for a solution in our country as well as in all parts of the world we are living in, and to create public sensitivity to disappearances.

ANF spoke to Erkan Güneş, music and lyrics composer of all songs in the three albums the band has released so far, and the director of photography of the band's videos, about the disappearances in Turkey.

- What is it like to be a child in a country where childre are forced to work, spend years in jails and are supposed to lead a life bearing a perception and consciousness equal to that of elders. What do the children of such a country dream of and do you believe children in Turkey can enjoy their childhood?

Childhood is the first destination of the human journey. We start to live the life as a child, bearing the inexperience of having just started to live. Children are inexperienced people, it is the lack of experience that assigns an “innocent” meaning to them and it is this innocence that makes them valuable.

Being a child in Turkey has many meanings. It means being Dilruba, Türkan and Ahmet who was found buried out in the bush 18 months after leaving his home to visit his neighbors to collect candies in the morning of a bairam (religious festivals). It means being a girl named Ceylan whose body was torn into pieces with mortar shell, it means being a boy named Uğur who was shot with 14 bullets. It means being N.Ç. who was raped by 26 men while at the age of 13. As is known, this country witnessed the execution of 17 year-old Erdal Eren (Turkish revolutionary leader hanged in the period of 12 September military coup in 1980). Being a child in Turkey has so many meanings that it has almost lost its true meaning.

The majority of the children in our country has to lead a life in an environment that they do not want nor deserve. How difficult and painful it is to talk about the dreams of children in a country which considers those under 18 years of age as children but also where girls at the age of 13-14 are forced to marry men much elder than themselves "with the consent of their families". Which dream could we possibly talk about in this case? These children find themselves in the midst of a nightmare yet before they have the opportunity to dream. There are still thousands of children who are sent not to school but to work.

The "disappeared children" we handle in this project include not only those who are kidnapped and leave their houses with their own will but also those who are forced to work, are exploited, ignored, neglected, beaten and killed.

All these major problems do not allow the majority of the children in our country to enjoy their childhood. It goes without saying that there are differences between a child who swims in the pool of a deluxe house in Istanbul and a child who washes himself in a brook in Hakkari.

- Considering the fact that the children in these lands, which have witnessed a war going on for over 30 years now, are deprived of their childhood and dreams, what message do you want to give with the concept “The Child's Dream”?

Thousands of children in this country have disappeared so far, with authorities having failed to initiate a legal process against disappearances and the parliament having failed to conduct a series work on the issue. The pain remains only for those who disappeared and those who lost them. Yes, there is a “silent” war going on in the country for 30 years now, having harmed thousands of children. The children of the people lost in this war are also a concrete reference to be mentioned in this respect. Those children have also suffered from disappearances, they lost their mothers and fathers in this war. The message The Child's Dream gives is clear, as is said in its lyrics as well, “Rainbow gardens on my right and left, before and behind me...”. Our song aims to enable the children to enjoy their childhood.

-The single album is dedicated to all kidnapped and disappeared children. Considering the fact that we all are the children of some people, no matter of what age we are, is it possible to say that the feelings and considerations you have voiced in the song refer also to the children of Saturday Mothers who are looking for their beloved ones for years now?

Of course. What we refer to with the “child” concept in this project is all the disappeared people in our country. I came across with Saturday Mothers in front of Galatasaray High School while taking a walk on İstiklal Avenue on a Saturday long ago. Holding the photographs of their “disappeared children”, they were waiting in silence, mothers looking for their very young children lost in custody. They were looking for their children whom they lost inside the institution of the state they are the citizens of... Their case and their story is no doubt more tragic than many others.

- What is the pain of a child like? Is the aim of this work to voice the feelings of children who are raped in Pozantı (prison), killed with mortar shells in Lice and with F-16s in Roboski, left blind in Istanbul and forced to beggary in Ankara? Do you believe the voice of these children are being heard?

The voice of these children, needless to say, are not being heard at all. The pain in their voice can only be heard by those who hurt and who are hurt. The pain of children is a scream that could be heard by two people at most, remaining to human within the distance of conscience. Despite the fact that the desire to exploit the physical weakness of a child is born by characteristically weak people, remaining unconcerned with this matter makes you equal with those who make children suffer that pain. This is because of the fact that those who turn a blind eye to cruelty are cruel as well.

I am really very sorry about what the children in Pozantı prison suffered from. It reminded me of Yılmaz Güney's film Duvar (The Wall) and the despair of the children there. It is a bitter reality that these children are subjected to all kinds of psychological, physical and sexual abuse in an institution of the state, being heard by nobody except for those who hear them but pretend not to have heard.

Besides, what do children have to do in jails? They are children, as the name implies! If a country has thousands of children in jails, this means something is wrong there.

The aim of this work is, as you have also mentioned, to voice the feelings of all lost, beaten, killed, sold and abandoned and working children, and to invite people to feel empathy with them. I hope it achieves its purpose.

- Does the hope, that of children left without mothers and that of mothers left without children, lie in tomorrow, as you say in the song?

That is a wish of ours because tomorrow is a new day which means new hopes. My friends and dozens of courageous children have contributed great efforts to this work. I extend my thanks to all of them, and to the families of these children.