Our Other Children

Exactly eleven years ago, on a September morning, I saw him on the front page of a newspaper. Under the headline “Humanity Washed Ashore”… His tiny body, his red T-shirt, his innocent face…
As if he were sleeping. As if he would get up any moment and run toward his mother.

His name was Alan Kurdi. The fragile rays of hope that had emerged from the claws of war came to an end on a beach in Bodrum; and once again, we, in the name of humanity, were ashamed. The whole world was talking about him,his photographs bringing tears to eyes on every continent, searing consciences. Everyone, as one voice, was saying, “never again.”

How many times, I wonder, has history whispered these very words? How many times has the same sentence been spoken after a child, the same promise made in the wake of innocence lost? From Anne Frank to the girl in the red coat, the symbol of Schindler’s List; from the nameless children of the Warsaw ghettos to Hiroshima, from Srebrenica to Rwanda, from Uyghur children to Palestine… How many times has the world raised the same cry? How many times has it made the same vow? They were the “other children” of history.

Children whose names we often never even knew, whose lived realities were etched into the annals of shame; children left in silence behind changing headlines and forgotten promises… Humanity did not see them, could not see them; it merely pretended to. Had we truly been able to look into those innocent eyes, perhaps we would have realized that they were “our” children. Despite people’s desire to look away, the lens grew ever narrower. The winds of oppression sweeping across the world made their presence felt in Turkey as well. As human rights violations increased, particularly after 2016, and have persisted for more than a decade, the heavy burden of injustice was once again placed upon the most vulnerable shoulders. This process has affected not only adults, but has also left and continues to leave deep marks on the lives of innocent children, our “other children.”

A new project has been added by AST to those striving to be a voice for children worldwide. The documentary Other Children, prepared in 2024, was first released to audiences on YouTube in November 2025, within the scope of United Nations World Children’s Day. The documentary was created in the hope of giving, even if only to a small extent, a voice to children who have been excluded, marginalized, ignored, and subjected to countless instances of hate speech in their own country due to their families’ political views and lifestyles.

What makes the documentary most compelling is its ability to bring to the audience, through the children’s own voices, the traumas, separations, and social exclusion experienced by children whose families were targeted during the post-2016 state of emergency and the period of decree laws (KHK). The documentary presents striking data, revealing that during this process in Turkey, 93 children ,among them 21 infants,lost their lives; more than 3,000 children were forced to grow up in prison alongside their mothers; and thousands were compelled to leave their country with their families. At the same time, it gives voice once more to the stories of the children who became symbols of this period: Betül Civelek, who lost her life after visiting her father unjustly imprisoned; Furkan Dizdar, who passed away after being denied the right to receive treatment abroad; and Ahmet Burhan Ataç, whose longing for his father once again leaves an ache in our hearts.

Returning with awards from the festivals it has participated in, the documentary has become, in many ways, a record of conscience. In today’s climate of censorship, it sheds light on pains that cannot even find a place in headlines, reminds humanity that the children we call “the other” are, in truth, our own.

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Zeynep H. Dayı