A rash of kidnappings by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) may destroy all the progress made in the peace negotiations since 2006.

While the peace process may be going nowhere, the separatist militant group that has battled Turkey for over three bloody decades has deepened its dominance in the majority-Kurdish southeast and has not given up its violent tactics — including toward civilians — to accomplish its goals.

On April 23, the PKK kidnapped 25 children between the ages of 14 and 16 near the construction site of the Abali gendarmerie outpost in the Lice district of Diyarbakir. On April 28, Erol Bockum, whose son Sinan, 15, was one of those kidnapped, told Al-Monitor, “We gave permission to the school only to take our kids to the spring festival [organized by the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP)] on the Tigris riverside — not far from this Abali gendarmerie construction site.”

The PKK asserts that the construction of such outposts is a sign that the state is preparing to launch a war against the Kurds in the region, and therefore rallies the people in protest of these buildings. Erol added, “Deviating from the purpose of this trip, they took our kids to this protest site. The PKK members lined them up and questioned them. … He does not understand anything about the PKK or their violence. I want my son back.”