The Kurds of Turkey celebrate Women’s Day on May 8.

On that day, in the city of Van, Kurdish women took to the streets to protest the killing of their children by Turkish law enforcement. They held photos of the dead and staged a sit-in on one of the city’s major thoroughfares.

One of the protestors, a woman named Sedika, said, “We don’t want Kurdish mothers to cry anymore.”

Aysel Touluk, a founder of the Patriotic Women’s Association and  Democratic Society Party MP, told or group of reporters that, “It’s a process particularly bent on destroying young boys. Recently, five children were killed in Diyarbakir as a result of police violence. Some died in jail.”

Participating in the Van protest were leaders of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP).