Saturday Mothers have been holding sit-ins in Taksim’s Galatasaray Square every Saturday for the state to declare the faith of their relatives disappeared in custody and for the perpetrators to be put on trial. The justice watch is now entering its 600th week.

Relatives of the disappeared Maside Ocak, Hanım Tosun, Faruk Eren, İkbal Eren and Hasan Karakoç emphasize that they will not stop pursuing the murderers until their last breath.

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 600th week today shared their feelings with the ANF.

OCAK: WE WILL SEEK JUSTICE UNDER ALL CIRCUMSTANCES

Maside Ocak, sister of symbol name Hasan Ocak, has been demanding justice to have the perpetrators put on trial for 21 years in Galatasaray Square. Maside was a young girl when she first started demanding justice for her brother Hasan, who was taken into custody in Avcılar on March 21, 1995 and whose lifeless body was found tortured in a forest in Beykoz Buzhane village on March 26, 1995. She is now a mother. Maside Ocak underlined that they are holding the 600th sit-in for the Saturday Mothers under grave rights violations brought by the state of emergency and said that the state of emergency was making a comeback because the fate of the people disappeared in custody since the September 12, 1980 coup until the end of the 1990’s wasn’t declared and the perpetrators were protected by impunity. Ocak mentioned that nothing will get better, all suffering will continue until the conditions of truth, justice and peace are achieved in the country and said they as the Saturday Mothers were talking about justice for a very long time but were never able to see a return. “Because more didn’t join our search for truth and justice, today there are Roboski families, Gezi families, Suruç and Ankara families,” said Ocak, and emphasized that in order for there to be a confrontation, judiciary, administrative and legal changes need to be made. Ocak said they will continue their struggle until these changes are made and continued: “Under any and all circumstances, including the State of Emergency, we have been here for 600 weeks and we will continue to be here to seek justice.”

TOSUN: WE KNEW OF THE ACID WELLS, WE WILL NEVER FORGET THE BASEMENTS IN CIZRE

Hanım Tosun was a 29 year old young mother when her husband Fehmi Tosun was taken into custody in October 19, 1995. She searched everywhere, all the police stations in Istanbul, with her two girls and three boys, youngest aged 3,5 and oldest 14. Hanım Tosun has held watch in Galatasaray Square for 21 years to have a gravestone for her husband, and she said in the 600th week, they still faced the same pains. Tosun said nothing had changed in 21 years, and mentioned Hurşit Külter and the basements of atrocity in Cizre to emphasize that the same cruelty still reigned. “We were battered, gassed, detained in the Galatasaray Square during the 1990’s so nobody would have to go through the same pains again,” said Tosun and continued: “If we were heeded and all the people objected this, Hurşit Külter wouldn’t have disappeared in custody, and people wouldn’t have been murdered in the basements in Cizre.” Tosun said the atrocities in Cizre and Sur opened a wound inside her that would never close: “We knew of the acid wells, of the mass graves, but we had never witnessed people being burned alive and murdered, broadcast live, in front of the eyes of the world, despite phone calls to the parliament. This is a shame in the name of humanity.”

“ALL THE LOST LIVES ARE MINE”

Tosun underlined that they will continue their struggle as the Saturday Mothers and said: “Circassian, Laz, Turkish, Kurdish, we carried this struggle to this day without any discrimination, all together. We aren’t interested in the Galatasaray Square, we just have one demand - that justice be served. We are after our graves, our bones. Every day we go to Galatasaray our conscience hurts.” Tosun demanded the cosmic rooms to be opened and the truth to come out at once, and called on the government: “If you are truly against coups, if you are for justice, put yourselves in the shoes of the mothers for just ten minutes, and ask yourselves: What would I do if a member of my family had disappeared?” Tosun called on everybody to support the Saturday Mothers and said: “While we sit in the square, some people pass by with icecream cones, some take pictures, they pass us by without any knowledge of anything, like a joke, or they stare from a distance. This hurts me and pushes me to despair. Not one of them come by and ask, ‘Why are you sitting here?’ Without breaking this disinterest, without unity, we can not overcome injustice.” Tosun said they will be after the state until justice is served and concluded: “I will not give up on this struggle until all bones of all our disappeared are returned, not just my husband’s, because all the lost lives are mine.”

EREN: DON’T WAIT UNTIL IT’S YOUR TURN

Hayrettin Eren was disappeared right after the September 12 coup, in November 21, 1980. His brother Faruk Eren has been searching for the fate of his brother for years and pointed out that the 600th sit-in of the Saturday Mothers came again in a time of coup. Eren emphasized that the coups in the country had never been confronted and said: “If they had truly confronted them, the perpetrators of the disappearances would be caught and brought to justice.” Faruk Eren underlined that the state spent no effort in this matter and his sister, İkbal Eren said they had been crying out for 600 weeks, without giving up, voicing the same demands, but they failed in creating an awareness. Eren said hundreds filled the Galatasaray Square in the 500th week, but on the 501st week they were left with a handful of people again, and continued: “People don’t see that the disappearances are still a continued wound for Turkey. We couldn’t get millions out on the streets like the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. This shows us how sensitive the people of this country are. We have struggled for the disappeared for 600 weeks, with just a handful of sensitive people, come rain or mud or snw, and we will continue to do so.” İkbal Eren called out to fellow citizens and said: “Don’t wait until it’s your turn, because then it will be too late.”

KARAKOÇ: ERDOĞAN PLAYED WITH US

Rıdvan Karakoç was taken into custody in 1994, and like Hasan Ocak, his body was also found tortured in the woods in Beykoz on March 2, 1995. His brother Hasan Karakoç said the fact that the Saturday Mothers, who had gone on this journey with the motto “Find the disappeared, put the obvious perpetrators on trial”, have been crying out in the streets for 21 years with the same demand showed the state of justice in the country. Karakoç said, “As Saturday Mothers, while we waited for an explanation to what happened to our loved ones, new people were added to the list of the disappeared. People were burned alive in basements in Cizre. In one hand, a coup attempt was thwarted, but a civilian coup was established in its stead. We said there wouldn’t be another State of Emergency in this day and age, and the State of Emergency was declared all of a sudden. Thousands of union teachers were removed from duty, the prisons were turned into hell. So I ask, what has changed in this country? The country has turned into an open air prison.” Karakoç mentioned that nothing will change in the country until this mindset changes and underlined that Turkey didn’t leave room to breathe for the opposition today, like it didn’t in the past. Karakoç said it had been four years since the Saturday Mothers were received in the Dolmabahçe Palace but none of the promises made then were kept since, and said: “Erdoğan was prime minister then, and said the problem of forced disappearances in custody was his cabinet’s problem as well, but he didn’t take any steps to ensure the perpetrators were put on trial. A commission was formed then, and it got to a certain place, but then it was stopped. Erdoğan openly played with us.” Karakoç underlined that they wouldn’t let the matter go in a thousand weeks, let alone 600, and said: “The struggle will continue as long as we breathe.”