The Saturday Mothers/People are set to mark their 1000th weekly gathering in İstanbul's Galatasaray Square this Saturday. This event will be held despite ongoing restrictions and police interventions that have previously hindered their activities.
The Saturday Mothers have been meeting since 1995 to demand justice for their loved ones who disappeared during the conflict in the Kurdish regions in the 1990s. In recent years, these gatherings have been disrupted or disallowed by police, despite a 2022 ruling by the Constitutional Court affirming their right to assemble.
The ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) Parliamentary Group Deputy Chair Özlem Zengin announced that this significant milestone would see broader participation, with supporters expected to join the Mothers in Galatasaray Square.
About Saturday Mothers/People
According to data from the Truth, Justice, and Memory Center, there were a total of 1,352 individuals recognized as forcibly disappeared in Turkey. A group of relatives of the disappeared and human rights advocates began sitting at Galatasaray Square on Saturday, May 27, 1995, at 12.00 p.m. Despite occasional police interventions, they continued the sit-ins uninterruptedly for 169 weeks. During the 170th week, which began on August 15, 1998, the security forces' prevented the protest and continued to do so for seven months. Every Saturday, for a total of 31 times, detentions occurred.
On March 13, 1999, due to the attacks by security forces, Saturday Mothers/People announced that they would temporarily suspend their sit-ins at Galatasaray. The Saturday sit-ins resumed on January 31, 2009, and faced police attacks again on the 700th week on August 25, 2018.
With the general election on June 24, 2018, Turkey officially transitioned to the presidential system, which was approved in the referendum held in April 2017. Since that day, many opposition officials, legal experts, and those who passed the constitutional amendment referendum repeatedly stated that the transition to the presidential system would turn Turkey into a state governed by decrees and that the president would unlawfully govern the country with decrees.
During the 700th week of the sit-in on August 28, 2018, an iconic photograph captured the atmosphere. Opposition MPs and protesters formed a human chain against the police, resembling a Renaissance painting. That image was the share of Saturday Mothers/People in a Turkey now governed by a different system. During the 700th week, the police attacked them with rubber bullets. (VK)
