Following a recent visit to Istanbul, Ali Has writes:
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. 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 state of emergency rule of the 1990s. In September 2018, they held their 700th sit-in protest, which was violently disrupted and has not been allowed since. But decide to disrupt and ban this peaceful protest now? It would appear that with the addition of former Turkish prime minister Tansu Ciller during the 1993-1996 and the then chief of police for Turkey Mehmet Agir in the current political arena alongside the ruling government that the banning of this protest is a gesture of good will or a “wink of the eye” aimed at appeasing them. Indeed, it is largely believed that it was at the direct orders of the two said actors or on their watch that most of the disappearances were ordered and occurred. Continue reading “The Saturday Mothers”