“I don't treat children like children. If I have a friendship, a relationship with a child, then he or she is my friend not a child. I don't see them as kids, I don't treat them like a different human species. Why? I never believed that it is right to treat children as kids: They are fully fledged human beings.”1
The historical and cultural perspective towards children in a society is one of the most important pillars of the discrimination against children. In the 18th century, the Romantic movement upheld the prevalent claim that children are vulnerable, innocent and ignorant and idealized them as singular beings, as if they were irrelevant in society. Since childhood is viewed as a period of dependence in both legal and biological terms, it becomes easy to disregard children as social actors. Children are thus seen mainly as passive and their cultural presence is rarely recognized.
The Turkish novelist Yaşar Kemal’s words above are important in this respect. The idea that children are immature and thus cannot be considered to be fully fledged human beings is widespread not only in Turkey but in all societies based on the modern bourgeois norm of nuclear family. The nuclear family structure considers children as “apple of its eye” yet also reduces them to dolls deprived of will and action.
Accordingly, childhood is a transitional period in human life and it needs to be overcome as soon as possible to reach the happy end, that is, adulthood. Ageism, shaped by adultism, claims that a child is somehow less than an adult by nature. A deep-rooted power relationship determines the social roles of human beings such as children and youth. Children are in a state of becoming; as such, they cannot be seen as complete and definable individuals until they become adults. Accordingly, children are in a sense deficient humans. Both academic studies and widespread public opinion reject the idea that children can have a rational viewpoint – considered to be the most important characteristic of the human identity. Childhood delineates the limits of the person and poses barriers to their rights.
Who is a child?
According to Article 6 of the Turkish Commercial Code, children are individuals under the age of 18. Article 3 of the Law on the Protection of Children (No. 5395) also stipulates that those aged below 18 are to be considered children in the application of the said law. Article 11 of the Civil Code stipulates that people older than 18 are legal adults. However, individuals over 15 can also be considered to be adults upon the consent of their parents and the approval of the courts. Likewise, a person over 16 can get married if authorized by a judge, and a person over 17 can marry with the consent of their parents. However, even with marriage or judiciary approval, these individuals continue to be considered as children. According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, signed by Turkey in 1994, anyone younger than 18 is a child and is under the protection of the convention.
As for criminal responsibility, the ages 12 and 15 are important. Children's criminal liability starts at the age of 12; younger children are not considered to have such liability. Children 15 and older have criminal liability; however, they are considered to be less culpable than adults due to their age and are thus given reduced sentences. There is no clear-cut judiciary decision as to whether children between the ages of 12 and 15 have full criminal liability or not.
As such, we see that in defining childhood, the judiciary system takes 18 as an important age limit, but also lowers the age of criminal liability to as low as 12. This is significantly lower than the children's rights standards put forth in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. As per the convention, even if an act committed by a child is considered to be a crime according to legislation, the principles of the juvenile justice system should come into action. The focus thus becomes not the acts committed by the child, but the reasons underlying this act, and rights-based solutions are formulated. Most importantly, the emphasis should always be the benefit of the child.
Unfortunately, numerous examples suggest that this is far from the case in Turkey. Cases in point include the execution of Erdal Eren over thirty years ago.2 Prime Minister Erdoğan's words during the Diyarbakır protests of March 2006 that “the state will do whatever is necessary, regardless of whether they are children or women,”3 or his declaration that “child or not, he will pay the price” in the context of the Lice event.4
According to official statistics, 9,931 children aged below 18 were tried in political court cases from 2002 through 2011. These court cases took place at the State Security Courts (DGM) in the first two years of the said period and then at Specially Authorized Courts (ÖYM).5 According to a report by the children's rights association Gündem Çocuk Derneği Çocuk Hakları Merkezi (Agenda: Child Association - Center for Children's Rights) 633 children lost their lives in Turkey in 2013 due to preventable causes. This figure stood at 609 in 2012 and at 815 in 2011.
Child population
According to 2014 data by the Turkish Statistical Institute, children aged between 0-17 account for 29.7% of the overall Turkish population. This ratio is higher than that in any European Union member state. The corresponding figure is 22.2% in France, 21.2% in the UK, 20.2% in Sweden, 17.6% in Greece and 16.8 in Italy. Germany has the lowest ratio with 16%.
Children constitute one third of the Turkish population, and 53.2% of all households include a child between birth and 17. In other words, there is a child in every other household. As such, legislation on children, policies on children (such as the so-called 4+4+4 school system), and political decisions that affect children's lives (e.g., the closing down of test preparatory schools or dershane) have a direct effect on more than half of the population. On the other hand, due to the fact that this huge population of children cannot vote, children are not given much importance by electoral candidates and become invisible in representative democracy.
Child as object of sympathy
Not only are children not viewed as subjects in political mechanisms and public administration, but they are also easily turned into objects. Children are instrumentalized as a means of raising sympathy and are frequently used in political campaigns and commercials, on TV and cinema. The police force likes being portrayed as saving children from danger in its ads, and ad agencies seem to need children to market anything from washing machines to cars, credit cards to feta cheese. Likewise local blockbusters (such as the movie Babam ve Oğlum, 2005), and popular TV series (for instance Küçük Ağa, 2014) depend heavily on the innocence, charm and talent of child actors.
Children once again take center stage when it comes to emotional abuse. People from all ages suffer all over the world; however, we pay attention when it is children who suffer. We can rapidly turn over the page when headlines read “Bombing by Israel,” “Conflict in Syria,” or “Two terrorists captured” without concern for the woes mentioned. However, as is well-known by ad, cinema and media professionals, it is totally different when a child enters the picture.
Barriers before the political participation of children
Studies in public administration in Turkey suggest that children are not seen as subjects with the right to participate or citizens who should take part in governance processes.6 Although they account for a large part of the population, children are deemed to be half citizens or citizen candidates. In cases of rights abuse, they have a hard time accessing the judiciary system and children's rights associations; as such, they are helpless in influencing decision makers. Children's views are rarely taken into account, they lack the right to vote, and they can't play a role in determining government's stance on human rights, which in turn makes them even more helpless.
Although children constitute over one third of the population, they are not a subject in the political process and can rarely make use of social resources. An analysis of the agenda and programs of political parties and government policies shows that children are not seen as active and visible individuals in the public arena, but rather as individuals awaiting services or victims whose rights are abused. In the program of the 61st government, the word child is used only in the contexts of education, social assistance and children in need of protection. Children are thus portrayed as deficient individuals who need protection. It must be added that this viewpoint is shared not only by the state and politicians. Parents as well as professionals in public administration, NGOs or children's rights advocacy seldom deem children's social roles and power to be important; they do not view children as agents of democracy.
However, children are individuals who are active agents of human rights and have independent thoughts and sentiments. As such, the logic of charity and patriarchal perspectives should be rejected. It is important to establish participatory channels to enable children to embrace democracy and the principle of living together. Ensuring children's participation means allowing children to express their opinions and to take these opinions into account during decision-making processes. As per Article 12 of United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, children should be able to take part in issues, decisions, activities and processes which concern them.
Children and dissident politics
According to the discourse by mainstream media, politicians and jurists, children have no place in politics. In line with the nuclear family structure and middle class values, children are supposed go to school, play in public parks, read children's books and watch cartoons. Although they are clichés, these ideas reflect the current situation. Children are expected to stay away from streets, squares, or the public space in general. Children on the street are always seen as bad examples: children who sniff glue, children who collect waste, peddle handkerchiefs or wipe windshields to make money. It is generally accepted that these children are driven to the streets by their ignorant or poor parents and community, and need to be saved. The empathy demonstrated by Yaşar Kemal in his interviews with street children thirty years ago is nowhere to be seen now.
Being on the streets is a harshly criticized act. What is criticized even more harshly is engaging in politics, as seen in the context of children throwing stones. Although children are imagined as being outside the realm of politics, whenever they participate in dissident actions against the state they are indeed seen as political subjects and concerns about their protection are put aside. On May Day 2013, the 17-year-old D.A. was hit on the head by the police with a gas canister and her skull was fractured. The then İstanbul governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu said “Dilan is a member of an illegal, marginal group. She is a radical militant. We haven't done anything wrong.” D.A. had ceased being a child as soon as she was deemed to be “member of an illegal organization.” According to the prevalent conservative perspective, children get involved in political action only because they are beguiled, manipulated and abused by adults. These children are immediately branded as terrorists, militants, anarchists, or “çapulcu”, etc.
The two opposing images about Berkin Elvan after his killing7 were also generalizations. He was portrayed either as a terrorist “with a scarf across his face and a slingshot in his hand” (a political subject) or an innocent kid who went out to buy bread (a non-political victim). The first argument disregards that Berkin was still a child, and the second overshadows his right to resist as a political subject. Due to the assumptions of the government and the media, hundreds of children such as Berkin are labelled, instrumentalized in politics and put in danger.
A striking case in point was the court case concerning a group of youngsters in the province of Manisa. In Manisa, sixteen children aged between 14 and 18 were taken under police custody on December 26, 1995 for allegedly writing graffiti on the walls, distributing leaflets, throwing molotov cocktails, and being members of an illegal organization. Most of them were high school students, and they were held in the Manisa Anti-Terror Unit. Based on their declarations under custody, they were put on trial for being members of an illegal organization at İzmir State Security Court (DGM). At the same time, a lawsuit was filed against ten police officers of the Anti-Terror Unit on torture allegations. The officers were accused of stripping the youngsters naked, harassing them sexually in different ways, beating them up, threatening them and cursing at them, covering their eyes, and tying them naked onto 45-degree declined benches for hours. Although forensic evidence revealed the torture in full detail, the lawsuit lasted many years.
One specific scene during the judicial process went down in history. As the prison bus took away the youth away from the courthouse, one mother held on to the vehicle door, shouting “Don't take away my daughter, she is just a kid!” What the mother was saying is that her daughter was too young to be involved in politics. This is a typical assumption which summarized the social and political roles attributed (or not attributed) to children. A child is innocent, ignorant and vulnerable. According to this romantic viewpoint, children can only be victims, and never the subjects of an event.
In that case, how can we expect children and youth to reclaim their neighborhood, city, environment and world tomorrow or ten years later and become indispensable and active members of a democratic society, within an order and among politicians and parents who do not take them seriously?
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1 Yaşar Kemal’in Kemal Özer’e verdiği söyleşi, 13 Eylül 1975, “Çocuklar İnsandır”, s. 17, Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2013, İstanbul.
2 Erdal Eren, 12 Eylül askeri darbesi döneminde, 17 yaşında olmasına rağmen, yaşını ispatlamak için kemik ölçümü yapılması talebi reddedilmiş, yaşı büyütülerek 13 Aralık 1980’de idam edilmişti.
3 24 Mart 2006’da Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri’nin bir operasyonunda öldürülen on iki PKK gerillasının cenaze töreninde ve sonrasında çıkan olaylara dair Başbakan Tayyip Erdoğan’ın sözleri.
4 8 Haziran 2014’te, Lice’de kışla içindeki bayrağı direkten indirenin TSK tarafından çocuk olduğunun açıklanması üzerine Başbakan Erdoğan “Çocuk da olsa gereği yapılacaktır, bedeli ödetilecektir” demişti.
5 Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP) Kırklareli Milletvekili Turgut Dibek’in soru önergesine Adalet Bakanlığı’ndan verilen cevap. http://bianet.org/bianet/insan-haklari/140604-9-yilda-10-bin-cocuk-dgm-….
6 Serdar Değirmencioğlu, “Demokraside Çocuk ve Gençlere Yer Açmak”, Sosyal Hizmet, ss. 23-33, Ocak 2008.
7 1999 doğumlu Berkin Elvan Gezi protestoları sırasında polis tarafından atılan göz yaşartıcı gaz kapsülünün başına isabet etmesi üzerine 269 gün komada kaldıktan sonra 11 Mart 2014’te hayatını kaybetti.