The Karadağ family’s story reflects the past 50 years of Kurdish experience. After being forced to relocate to Dîlok, where they have tried to rebuild their lives, the family lost children who joined the PKK and faced repeated detentions.

 

Speaking about their experiences, Salih Karadağ and Peace Mother Fidan Karadağ described the heavy toll they have paid and their struggle for what they call an honourable peace.

 

FATHER AND DAUGHTER DETAINED TOGETHER

 

The cycle of violence faced by the family began in 2013, when their daughter Beritan Karadağ chose to join the PKK instead of enrolling at university. A year later, another daughter, Dilan Karadağ, a history student at İbrahim Çeçen University in Ağrı, also joined.

 

That same year, their daughter Remziye (Binevş) Karadağ was detained and arrested. Just 25 days after her release from Mardin Prison, a raid on the family home intensified their ordeal.

 

Recalling that morning, Salih Karadağ said soldiers kicked in the door and shouted, “Is Remziye Karadağ here?” before ransacking the house. He said he and his daughter were taken into custody.

 

TORTURE AND DETENTION IN SPORTS HALLS

 

Karadağ said he was held for 26 days in a sports hall in Riha along with around 400 others after being detained, describing harsh conditions and torture. He added that his daughter Remziye was subjected to torture in an anti-terror unit.

 

“My lawyer told me, ‘They will release you, but not your daughter Binevş,’ and that is what happened. I was released after eight months, but she remained imprisoned for years on charges of ‘terror organization membership,’ held in Hilvan T-Type Prison and later in prisons in Elazığ and Tarsus,” he said.

 

Karadağ said that after her release in 2020, Binevş was forced to leave for Europe.

 

A MOTHER’S CONSENT

 

Fidan Karadağ recalled the moment her daughter Beritan made her decision and said: “We were harvesting pistachios when she took my hands and said, ‘Mother, I will go and join my comrades.’ At first, I could not accept it as a mother, but she told me, ‘Your other children will also defend you and these lands,’ and she chose her path.”

 

NEWS FROM THE MOUNTAINS: DILAN KARADAĞ

 

The family’s suffering was not limited to imprisonment. Salih Karadağ said he learned of his daughter Dilan Karadağ’s death while watching television. “They said ‘10 comrades have been killed.’ When I heard Dilan’s name, I said, ‘My Dilan has fallen,’” he said.

 

Fidan Karadağ expressed pride in her daughter, saying: “I am very proud of her; I hold my head high.”

 

Facing ongoing pressure, the family said they were forced in 2019 to leave their land and move to Dîlok, where they now continue their lives in exile through farming and livestock work. “We did not come here by choice. We had to leave our land and village because of state oppression,” Salih Karadağ said.

 

Despite her losses, Fidan Karadağ stressed the need for peace for everyone, saying she does not want any mother to experience the pain of losing a child and calling for a shared commitment to peace.