ANKARA: Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairperson Devlet Bahçeli criticized a recent report by the United States claiming that Turkey has a clear record of protecting children’s rights. “It is known, as a country, we are an open party to the regulations and conventions adopted by the United Nations on protecting children’s rights,” Bahçeli said at a parliamentary group meeting. Criticizing the “contradictory” assumptions of a recent report by the U.S. State Department on trafficking people, Bahçeli said: “The U.S. attempt to defame Turkey is both a hypocritical and futile effort.”
Washington on June 30 added Turkey and 15 other countries to the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) list – a designation included in the State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report that ranks countries in various tiers in accordance with their efforts to eliminate trafficking. The list includes Afghanistan, Burma, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Turkey, Venezuela and Yemen. Bahçeli also accused the U.S. of having links to the PKK terrorist organization and its Syrian wing, the YPG, “which uses children in terrorist acts.”
Turkey strongly rejected the “baseless” allegations by the U.S. – which claims that Ankara violated the Child Soldiers Prevention Act in Libya and Syria – as the country noted that Washington turns a blind eye to the activities of YPG/PKK terrorists.
In its more than 40-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU – has been responsible for the deaths of at least 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
Turkey has consistently criticized the U.S. for partnering with YPG/PKK terrorists in Syria to defeat another terrorist group.
In May, the U.N. published a report on children in the armed conflict in Syria, stressing the YPG’s continued use of children in combat on top of several other serious rights violations. – Agencies
