Saturday Mothers have been holding sit-in in Taksim’s Galatasaray Square every Saturday for 22 years for the state to declare the faith of their relatives disappeared in custody and for the perpetrators to be put on trial.

For three generations, they haven’t given up on looking for their loved ones for years. In the winter, in the summer, in the rain and in the snow, they have been asking the state about the fate of their relatives who were disappeared under custody with the sit-in they hold in Galatasaray Square every Saturday. Instead of easing their pain, the state adds more, their numbers in the square continue to rise every day. Some couldn’t live to see today, like Mama Berfo, who closed her eyes for the last time while the grave prepared for her son laid empty. But they never lost hope.

Saturday Mothers whose cries for justice have entered their 635th week in the vigil for justice today. With images of the disappeared and mothers who died before learning about the fate of their children, Saturday Mothers unfurled a banner which read “Let the culprits be punished”, and presented red carnations to the relatives of those forcibly disappeared by the state's 'security forces' over the years.

During the vigil, mothers sent a message of solidarity with educators Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça who were unlawfully arrested and whose hunger strike continues in its 80th day.

Emine Ocak, mother of Hasan Ocak who has become the symbol of the disappeared, held a speech during the event and recalled that she has been sitting at Galatasaray Square for 22 years now. Ocak remarked that opposition figures in Turkey end up either dead or imprisoned, and said “This country has no conscience.”

“WE INHERITED THE RESISTANCE FROM THE MOTHERS”

One other Saturday Mother is Besma Tosun who has been participating in the Galatasaray vigils since her childhood and is a mother herself now, who is demanding to learn about the aftermath of her father Fehmi Tosun who had been disappeared in custody.

Tosun described the cry for justice that continues for the third generation today as resistance, stressing that: “The mothers that left this struggle as a legacy to us taught us to resist not only here but in all areas of life.”

Tosun emphasized that their lasting struggle basically aims to bring the policy of impunity to an end. She said the AKP government did not accede to the United Nations' International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance because it was a part of this crime as it promoted and awarded murderers. She underlined that they would not give up on their resistance and continue to be a beam of light everywhere there is darkness.

22ND YEAR

After speeches, Maside Ocak, sister of symbol name Hasan Ocak, read out this week’s statement and told the followings regarding the 22 year-old struggle in Galatasaray against the forced disappearances, the most cruel crime of the state;

“While hundreds of people were disappeared by the state during the 1990s, we as people searching for them were faced with systematic denial. We applied to all relevant authorities of the state. Everywhere we went, we were blamed, threatened, tortured, arrested, jailed with unreal claims such as misleading the judiciary and harming the police, the military and the state. Faced with the fact that our efforts would yield no results, we took to the Galatasaray Square on May 27, 1995, refusing to bend the knee before denial, impunity and injustice, and saying 'We want our disappeared relatives'.

We grew a silent resistance saying ‘I am human and I have rights’ against the dishonorable silence imposed on us. We handed this resistance down from generation to generation and strengtened it. We appeared before the public with the responsibility of witnessing that crime aainst humanity. We used our right to expose the fact that it is a state policy to massacre our beloved ones, hide their bones even from us and grant their culprits impunity.

"15 YEARS OF INJUSTICE UNDER AKP RULE”

Ocak noted that 15 of the 22 years they spent in Galatasaray have passed under the rule of the AKP, the name of which consists of 'Justice', and said "The independence of judiciary and rule of law got weaker and the judiciary became politicized during the AKP period in Turkey."

Ocak demanded the rearrangement of the Turkish Criminal Code under the title of crimes against humanity, removal of the obstacles for the prosecution of perpetrators, and Turkey’s signing of the UN’s related convention in order to prevent further cases of forced disappearances.

Lastly, Ocak said “We remind once again that creation of a fair and peaceful society depends on facing and coming to terms with the past. We also declare, once again, that we will continue our struggle until the reign of injustice comes to an end.”