Edited by: TJVNews.com
The issue of countries who use children as soldiers in armed conflicts has once again been moved to the forefront of international political discourse, as it was revealed on Thursday that the United States added Turkey to a list of countries that are implicated in the use of child soldiers over the past year, according to a Reuters report. Such a listing represented the first time that a NATO ally had the dubious distinction of making this list which is generally reserved for rogue countries. Reuters reported that this move is likely to further complicate the already fraught ties between Ankara and Washington.
The US State Department determined in its 2021 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) that Turkey was providing “tangible support” to the Sultan Murad division in Syria, a faction of Syrian opposition that Ankara has long, supported, according to the Reuters report. It is a group that Washington has charged with recruiting and using children as armed combatants.
Reuters reported that there was no immediate reaction from Turkey on the move.
In a briefing call with reporters, a senior State Department official also made a reference to the use of child soldiers in Libya, saying Washington was hoping to work with Ankara on the issue to address it, according to the Reuters report.
“With respect to Turkey in particular…this is the first time a NATO member has been listed in the child soldier prevention act list,” the State Department official said. “As a respected regional leader and member of NATO, Turkey has the opportunity to address this issue – the recruitment and use of child soldiers in Syria and Libya,” she said, as was reported by Reuters.
Reuters reported Turkey has carried out three cross-border operations in Syria against the Islamic State, as well as US-backed Kurdish militia and has frequently used factions of armed Syrian fighters on top of its own forces.
Some of these groups have been accused by human rights groups and the United Nations of indiscriminately attacking civilians and carrying out kidnappings and lootings, as was reported by Reuters. The United Nations had asked Ankara to rein in these Syrian rebels while Turkey rejected the allegations, calling them “baseless.”
Turkey, through proxies and its own armed forces, has also been involved in the Libyan conflict, Reuters revealed in its report. Ankara’s support has helped the Tripoli-based government reverse a 14-month assault from eastern forces backed by Egypt and Russia.
Reuters reported that governments placed on this list are subject to restrictions, according to the State Department report, on certain security assistance and commercial licensing of military equipment, absent a presidential waiver.
It was not immediately clear whether any restrictions would automatically apply to Turkey and the move raised questions whether it could derail Ankara’s ongoing negotiations with Washington on Turkey’s bid to run Afghanistan’s Kabul airport once US completes its pullout of its troops, as was reported by Reuters.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said the two things won’t likely be linked. “When it comes to trafficking in persons, I would not want to link the report today with the constructive discussions we’re engaging in with Turkey, in the context of Afghanistan or any other area of shared interest,” he said in a briefing.
