ANKARA – A total of 2,767 minors are imprisoned in Turkey, 197 of them under terrorism charges, according to data from the General Directorate of Prisons and Detentions, published by the newspaper Hürriyet on Wednesday.
The official information was provided to the opposition deputy Onursal Adígüzel of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), who had asked a parliamentary question about the number and conditions of children deprived of their liberty.
The data of August 1, 2017 revealed that in the age range of 12 to 18 years there were 1,403 inmates in educational centers and prisons for minors, and t1,64 in prisons for adults.
Of those imprisoned for crimes related to terrorism, only 15 were in juvenile centers but only four of them were enrolled in the education system.
Child indoctrination by terrorists, particularly the Islamic State, has become a growing issue in Turkey in recent years, which includes the existence of training camps scattered across Istanbul, as well as coercing them into carrying out attacks or featuring in propaganda material.
