The Saturday Mothers ( tr, Cumartesi Anneleri) is a group which gathers every Saturday at noon for half an hour at

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club'') is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul in Turkey. Most notable for its association football department, the club also consists of various other de ...

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, initially to ask for clarification about their missing relatives.Gülsüm Baydar and Berfin İvegen. 2006. "Territories, Identities, and Thresholds: The Saturday Mothers Phenomenon in İstanbul". Signs, 31, 3, pp. 689-715. Mainly composed of mothers of victims, and renowned as a model of

civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Hen ...

,"'C’était très drôle, une poignée de femmes, des centaines de policiers' : un entretien avec Ayşe Günaysu ('It was too absurd, a handful of women and hundreds of cops': An interview with Ayşe Günaysu)". Hypotheses. n.d. Accessed 18 September 2014.
/ref> they combine silent

sit-in A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to mo ...

with communal

vigil A vigil, from the Latin ''vigilia'' meaning ''wakefulness'' (Greek: ''pannychis'', or ''agrypnia'' ), is a period of purposeful sleeplessness, an occasion for devotional watching, or an observance. The Italian word ''vigilia'' has become genera ...

as their method of

protest A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one. Protests can be thought of as acts of coopera ...

against the

forced disappearance An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organiza ...

s and

political murder Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not hav ...

s in Turkey during the

military coup A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such ...

-era of the 1980s and the

OHAL The OHAL region ( tr, Olağanüstü Hâl Bölge Valiliği, lit=Governorship of Region in State of Emergency) was a "super-region" created in Turkey under state of emergency legislation, as part of its approach to the Kurdish–Turkish conflict. Fr ...

-era of the 1990s. The group began in 1995. It has faced repression from the state, including

police violence Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, but is not limited to, ...

and

prosecution A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal trial ...

, most recently in November 2020.

History

According to the

Human Rights Association The Human Rights Association ( tr, İnsan Hakları Derneği, İHD) is an NGO for advancing Human rights in Turkey, founded in 1986 and headquartered in Ankara. Establishment The İHD's origins can be traced to the victims of the purges in the ...

, between 1992 and 1996, 792 state-forced disappearances and murders have been reported in the east of Turkey, with many more missing persons who remain unreported (see also,

). Reportedly influenced by the

Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is an Argentine human rights association formed in response to the National Reorganization Process, the military dictatorship by Jorge Rafael Videla, with the goal of finding the ''desaparecidos'', initially, an ...

,Ayfer Genç Yılmaz, 2014
"Toplumsal Hareketin Kalbinde Bir Yeni Özne: Anneler (A New Subject in the Heart of the Social Movement)"
Marmara Üniversitesi Siyasal Bilimler Dergisi (Marmara University Journal of Political Sciences), 2, 1, pp. 51-74. Accessed 18 September 2014. their first sit-in was on May 27, 1995. After facing violent police attacks almost every week, on March 13, 1999, they were forced to halt their protest following a particularly harsh series of attacks by the police and the resulting trauma in the participants. They resumed their protests on January 31, 2009. Currently, the group that started with about 30 people has thousands of participants. On August 25, 2018, Turkish authorities announced that the governorship has banned the gathering event indefinitely. Following the announcement, in their 700th peaceful protest, Saturday Mothers were faced with police violence and several of the participants were detained. In November 2020, a prosecutor demanded up to three years imprisonment for protestors for attempting to have an "illegal meeting". The main demands of the group include: * to raise awareness of state-sponsored violence, militarization, and militarism in Turkey, * the state documents archives to be opened up for public review in order for state-sponsored political murders to be brought to light,"Savaşa Değil, Barışa Yatırım Yapın" ("Invest in Peace not War")
Bianet, 23 June 2012. Accessed 22 July 2012."Susmak Kaybedenleri Cesaretlendirir, Susmayacağız!" ("Silence encourages those who lose, we will not keep silent!")
Bianet, 16 June 2012. Accessed 22 July 2012. * changes to the Turkish penal code to be made in order to remove the statute of limitation on political murders and forced disappearances, * Turkey to sign the

International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED) is an international human rights instrument of the United Nations intended to prevent forced disappearance, which, as defined in international law ...

Meeting with Prime Minister Erdogan

In February 2011, Prime Minister

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the List of presidents of Turkey, 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as Lis ...

invited the Saturday Mothers to his office in Istanbul to listen to the requests of the mothers. Erdoğan said that as government he will do everything he can to alleviate the suffering of the family members, but also mentioned that it will not be easy to achieve results in cases that are older than 30 years. He noted, however, that this could not be an excuse and that the necessary efforts would be made to achieve positive results.

Banned by the Erdogan Government

Ahead of their 700th Saturday vigil, the Erdogan government banned the Saturday Mothers as part of what

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

, and

Front Line Defenders Front Line Defenders, or The International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, is an Irish-based human rights organisation founded in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland in 2001 to protect those who work non-violently to uph ...

in a joint statement called “a relentless crackdown on civil society, human rights defenders and those who peacefully express their dissent in Turkey.” When they gathered that day, the Saturday Mothers were arrested. Their trial began in Istanbul on 25 March 2021.

Awards

* In 2013, they were awarded with the International

Hrant Dink Hrant Dink ( hy, Հրանդ Տինք; Western ; 15 September 1954 – 19 January 2007) was a Turkish-Armenian intellectual, editor-in-chief of ''Agos'', journalist and columnist. As editor-in-chief of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspa ...

Award. * In 2019, they were awarded with the Human Rights, Peace and Democracy Award from the

Istanbul Medical Chamber The Istanbul Medical Chamber ( tr, İstanbul Tabip Odası) is a medical association in Istanbul, Turkey. Founded in 1929,Ayten Arıkan (2011),History of Istanbul Medical Chamber - İstanbul Tabip Odası Tarihi{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.o ...

References

External links

“Holding Up the Photograph” Experiences of the Women Whose Husbands Were Forcibly Disappeared

Unspoken truth: Enforced disappearances
(PDF)
Enforced Disappearances and the Conduct of the Judiciary
{{Europe topic, Racism in Political movements in Turkey Enforced disappearance Human rights in Turkey Turkish women in politics