Turkey plays down death toll of Kurdish youths
The steady stream of Turkey's Kurdish youths killed while fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have failed to make the news, further fueling tensions between the Turkish government and its Kurdish population.
While the de facto cease-fire with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) means there have not been frequent reports of Kurdish martyrs for the past couple of years, Turkey's eastern and southeastern provinces continue to tremble with funerals of Turkey's Kurdish youths getting killed fighting the Islamic State (IS). Coffins come across the border nearly daily from Iraq’s Yazidi region of Shengal and from Hasakah, Qamishli and Kobani of northern Syria.
The number of Turkey's Kurdish youth killed while fighting in the ranks of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and their counterpart Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) have exceeded 500. Around 35% to 40% of those killed are women.
