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These Canadian Kids Were Abducted by Their Dad to Iraq — But No One Really Knows Where They Are

One official with the Kurdish militia known as the PKK believes the children are no longer in Iraq, and that their father may have taken them across the border into Iran.
Alison Azer and her four children/photo via CP

As a mother from British Columbia mobilizes support across Canada to get her four children back from their father who abducted them to northern Iraq, there is more uncertainty than ever before about where they are and how they will come home.

Alison Azer has made headlines for her attempts to find her children, Sharvahn, Rojevahn, Dersim, and Meitan, who went on a 10-day vacation to Europe seven months ago with their father. Saren Azer, a Kurdish Iranian doctor, had been granted permission by the courts to go on the trip with the kids following a divorce and bitter custody battle with Alison. But he never brought them back.

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After the children went missing, it was believed Saren took them to a remote village in the Qandil mountains to live among members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, also known as the PKK, a militia movement that Canada, and other Western nations, has deemed a terrorist organization.

But as politicians from all parties demand Prime Minister Justin Trudeau take immediate action on the case, it's increasingly difficult to pinpoint the children's exact location.

"I don't know where they are, where they are being kept," Bayan Sami Rahman, the Kurdistan Regional Government's representative in Washington, DC, told VICE News after meeting with Canadian members of parliament about Azer's missing children last week.

Please join vigil for Azer children on Parliament Hill Ottawa March 21 at 3:30 Bring a yellow candle — FindAzerkidsnow (@FindAzerkidsnow)March 20, 2016

A foreign affairs spokesperson for the KRG told VICE News that police in the region had searched for the youngsters, who range from from 11 to three years old, but "found no clue about their whereabouts under KRG controlled area." Hawjeen Farhad added that the department has record of Saren and the kids entering Kurdistan through Sulaymaniyah International Airport, and that Saren "has connections with PKK."

Meanwhile, a PKK officer and spokesperson, who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons, said he believes the children are no longer in Iraq, and that their father may have taken them across the border into Iran, where Saren is believed to have connections.

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The confusion comes as Azer hosts a vigil and day of action in front of the Parliament buildings in Ottawa on Monday that coincides with rallies nationwide.

"I'm literally in the fight of my life," Azer said in an interview. "I need Canada to flex its muscles and demand the return of these kids. They are Canada's children."

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service at one point suspected that Saren, who fled to Canada as a refugee in 1994 after facing persecution back home in Iran, had ties to the PKK, but the agency dropped its investigation in 2000. Saren was granted full Canadian citizenship in 2006. Azer says Saren became increasingly strict with the children's wardrobe and behavior, and routinely said he didn't want to raise them in Western society.

She said he got furious when she wanted to take her children to friends' birthday parties, and enrol her daughter in swimming lessons, which he forbade because of the revealing swimsuits.

Despite the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's warrant for Saren's arrest and Interpol's "red alert" to law enforcement agencies around the world, Azer took matters into her own hands last December by traveling to the Qandil mountains with a local journalist to meet with PKK leaders. She says they told her the children were nearby, and she thought they would finally be reunited.

However at the last minute, she says the leaders told her her family was no longer there. Still, Azer believed they were, and has continued pleading with Canadian government officials and the KRG to intervene, especially as Turkey carries its bombing campaign against Kurdish targets in that region.

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"Canada is engaging in a strong military campaign and humanitarian efforts there," she said. "There's a lot that could be done to bring them home."

The journalist who Azer traveled with last year, Bahman Tawfeeq, told VICE News in an email that he has since sent a journalist back to the village where the children were believed to be staying to try to find them again. "But he said they weren't there and he has asked the villagers about the children, they said they [didn't] see them anymore after Alison went there," Tawfeeq said. "Now I am not sure exactly where they are, but I will go on searching for them even though I have been threatened by PKK three times to stop putting pressure on them for the children."

This is a non-partisan issue - RT to ask — Michelle Rempel, MP (@MichelleRempel)March 21, 2016

A spokesperson from Global Affairs said in an email that the department "remains deeply concerned for the wellbeing of the children," but can't comment on the case with much detail due to privacy concerns. However, consular officials are "working closely with the appropriate government authorities in Canada and abroad."

Despite the uncertainty, Azer says she will do whatever it takes to get her children back, and plans on returning to Kurdistan next month.

"Every morning I wake up and ask for courage to get through one more day," she said. "But I need my country behind me."

Follow Rachel Browne on Twitter: @rp_browne