Disease-Stricken Siblings Demand Mother's Freedom

Solin (5) and Mirhat (7), who suffer from leukemia and epilepsy respectively, addressed PM Erdogan, demanding freedom for their mother Hanım Onur, a Kurdish politician who was jailed in 2011 for being a KCK organization member.

While mother Hanım Onur's request for probe to take care of her children has been denied due to "insufficient documentation", the siblings' father is a declared fugitive whom the authorities issued arrest warrants for being a KCK organization member.

An online petition demanding freedom for the mother has already reached 40,000 signature in a few days.

After the campaign broke in the news, Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Şahin contacted local authorities in Şırnak province where the siblings resided. Following Şahin's order, Cizre Prefecture Şenol Koca paid a short visit to Solin and Mirhat in their homes, promising to cover their health expenses.

Solin - whose situation is showing little progress in the lack of her mother -  sang a song in Kurdish dedicated to her mother, which said "The spring is gone/My eyes are longing for you/My wishes don't come true/Let this longing be over/It is so painful"

"There are thousands of children like we are. We are all missing our mothers. Our PM Minister lost his mother lately and we have seen how upset he was. Our mother is jailed. Doesn't PM miss his mother? Every child want to be by their mother's side, every mother wants to be by her children's side. Our mum misses us so much. My sister cries all the time. Please let my mum free. She wasn't with us on Mothers' Day. We are so miserable without our mother. We want our mum back. We are asking for help from PM," Mirhat said.

Ayşe Yural, siblings' grandmother, said the authorities could at least free Hanım Onur on parole for the sake of children's treatment.

"If she is released, she can take care of her children. A mother should be by their children's side when they are disease-stricken. I can't be their mother. The kids don't respond to their treatment well in the lack of their mother. We are asking for help from the government authorities," she said. (BK/HK/BM)

Photo: Abidin Yel - Şırnak / AA

* This article has partially been compiled from NTVmsnbc and CNNTürk websites.