Saturday Mothers
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.[1] Mainly composed of mothers of victims, and renowned as a model of civil disobedience,[2][3] 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 OHAL-era of 1990s. On October 25, 2014, they held their 500th sit-in protest.
"I started to cry after I started participating in the Saturday Mothers; before, I was crying in solitude, I could not express my suffering." (a "Saturday mother")[3]
According to the Human Rights Association, between 1992 and 1996, 792 state-forced disappearances and murders have been reported in Kurdish regions in Turkey, with many more missing persons who remain unreported[4][5] (see also, OHAL).
Reportedly influenced by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo,[6] their first sit-in was on May 27, 1995.[3][6] After facing violent police attacks almost every week,[7][8][9] 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.[1][10] They resumed their protests on January 31, 2009. Currently, the group that started with about 30 people[1] has thousands of participants.
Their main demands include:
- to raise awareness of state-sponsored violence, militarization, and militarism in Turkey,[6]
- the state documents archives to be opened up for public review in order for state-sponsored political murders to be brought to light,[11][12]
- changes to the Turkish penal code to be made in order to remove the statute of limitation on political murders and forced disappearances,[11][12]
- Turkey to sign the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.[11][12]
In 2013, they were awarded the International Hrant Dink Award.[13]
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
See also
- Ladies in White
- Mothers of Khavaran
- Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo
- Mourning Mothers (Mothers of Laleh Park)
- List of peace activists
- Yakay-Der
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Gülsüm Baydar and Berfin İvegen. 2006. "Territories, Identities, and Thresholds: The Saturday Mothers Phenomenon in İstanbul". Signs, 31, 3, pp. 689-715.
- ↑ B. Dağtaş and E. Dağtaş. 2007. "Sivil İtaatsizlik Örneği Olarak 'Cumartesi Anneleri' ('Saturday Mothers' as a Model of Civil Disoberdience)". Kültür ve İletişim.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "'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.
- ↑ "Turkey - Saturday Mothers", AHRC, 1997. Accessed 18 September 2014.
- ↑ "The Saturday Mothers", Open Democracy, 4 December 2012. Accessed 18 September 2014.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 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.
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- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "Savaşa Değil, Barışa Yatırım Yapın" ("Invest in Peace not War"), Bianet, 23 June 2012. Accessed 22 July 2012.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 "Susmak Kaybedenleri Cesaretlendirir, Susmayacağız!" ("Silence encourages those who lose, we will not keep silent!"), Bianet, 16 June 2012. Accessed 22 July 2012.
- ↑ "Hrant Dink Ödülü Cumartesi Anneleri ve Nataša Kandić’e gitti" ("Hrant Dink Award goes to the Saturday Mothers and Nataša Kandić"). Agos. 15 September 2013. Accessed 20 September 2013.
