5 kidnapped children released in eastern Turkey

04:46, 10 September 2014

ANKARA. KAZINFORM - Five among the ten children allegedly kidnapped by rebels of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) were released in the province of Mus in eastern Turkey on Tuesday, a high-ranking Turkish official said.

The five children had returned safely to their homes early on Tuesday, Mus Governor Vedat Buyukersoy was quoted as saying by Turkey's Today's Zaman.

Earlier on Sunday, a group of 30 PKK militants kidnapped ten kids between the age of 12 to 15, including one girl, at a mosque in Catakli village in Mus' Bulanik town, private Hurriyet newspaper reported on Monday. The move was considered as an attempt to strengthen the TKK's power against Turkish security forces in rural areas.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, took up arms in 1984 in a bid to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. Since then, more than 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts involving the group, according to Xinhua.

Turkish authorities started peace negotiations with the PKK in Oct., 2012, which led to a ceasefire in March, 2013, and PKK fighters started to return to their strongholds in northern Iraq in May 2013.

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