The 19-year-old Sezer Arslan was among the terrorists killed during recent military operations against the PKK in the Kazan Valley near Hakkari. Arslan´s family hung Turkish flags on the walls of their home as they received condolences in defiance of the PKK.

The boy´s father, Mehmet Arslan, said his son was deceived by the PKK while he was a student at the Hakkari Anatolian Teacher Training School two years ago. “I sent my son to Hakkari as I wanted him to be a teacher. They [the PKK] deceived him two years ago and took him to the mountain. We have one military and flag. We are not traitors. We are all Muslims; we want to live under the same flag in this country,” he said.

Arslan, the father of seven other children, said one of his sons is a policeman and that he always feared the two would have to face one another. The grieving mother, Kadriye Arslan, said she still cannot believe her son went to the mountains with the PKK.

“He was a good boy. I could have never imagined that he would do such a thing. They deceived my son and took him to the mountains. I am engulfed in sorrow and do not want other mothers to be like me,” she said.