The protest started by the ‘Saturday Mothers’ on 27 May 1995 to say, “We want our losses!” has left 23 years behind. The Saturday Mothers were inspired by the protest of the mothers in Plaza de Mayo in Argentina for those who died during the junta period. The protest is currently the longest civil disobedience action in Turkey’s history.
Relatives of those who passed away gathered once again, as every week, at Galatasaray Square; repeating their demands once again after so many years. They demanded an end for impunity with deeply rooted legal, administrative and judicial changes; the perpetrators of their lost relatives to be put on trial; the right to truth and justice to be legally protected and Turkey to sign the United Nations International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED).
The protests have left 23 years behind after its start with the son of Emine Ocak, Hasan Ocak found tortured and dead in a mass grave 55 days after being taken into custody on 21 March 1995. The first sit-in protest was made on 27 May 1995 with the demand to “end enforced disappearances, to announce the state of disappeared individuals, to find perpetrators and put them on trial.” The relatives continued their protests every week without a break until 1999; continuously being attacked by the police with sticks and tear gas and being taken into custody each time. The Saturday Mothers have then announced “a break” for their protests on 13 March 1999; after a 10-year break, the Saturday Sit-Ins started once again on 31 January 2009 and is ongoing ever since.
28.05.2018
bianet.org