For the 600th time, families and relatives of missing persons in Turkey gathered in a square in Istanbul demanding justice for their relatives who were killed or disappeared at the hands of the authorities in the early 1990s.
“I have been coming to this place for 21 years. I do not where my daughter, sister and nephew are. I do not know their whereabouts,” a mourning mother lamented.
The Saturday Mothers gather at 12pm every Saturday in Galatasaray square in Istanbul carrying photographs of their lost loved ones. They hold a silent sit-in in protest of the forced disappearances and political murders in Turkey after the 1980 military coup.
The protest began in 1995 when the family of Hasan Ocak held the first sit-in following his arrest in Istanbul. After weeks of trying to find out his whereabouts from the police, his tortured body was finally uncovered in a graveyard for unidentified people.
The sit-ins continued and grew in size until they were forced to stop in 1999 because of increasing police violence. They resumed 10 years later, in 2009, and have since met every Saturday, yesterday for the 600th time.
An MP from the Turkish parliament told Rudaw that they will not give up until the government “heeds our request.”
Artists, intellectuals, and opposition politicians have joined the sit-in, sharing the grief of the mothers who have lost their children.
SATURDAY MOTHERS IN BRITAIN SPOKE OUT
Here in London, in conjunction with Britain Democratic Power Union (Britanya Demokratik Güç Birliği), Saturday Mothers supporters here in the UK gathered together in the Trafalgar Square. In the press release, a spokesperson said “We want our losses back taken by the police or any governmental authorities!” The press release also mentioned that for the 600th time, they have been expecting a news or update on their losses’ status.
WHAT HAD HAPPENED?
The Saturday Mothers (Cumartesi Anneleri) is a group who gathers 12pm every Saturday for half an hour at Galatasaray (district), Istanbul (Turkey), holding photographs of their “lost” loved ones.[1] Mainly composed of mothers of victims, and renowned as a model of civil disobedience, they combine silent sit-in with communal vigil as their method of protest against the forced disappearances and political murders in Turkey during the military coup-era of 1980s and the OHAL-era of 1990s. In September 2016, they held their 600th sit-in protest.