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:

In 2013, they were awarded the International Hrant Dink Award.[13]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Gülsüm Baydar and Berfin İvegen. 2006. "Territories, Identities, and Thresholds: The Saturday Mothers Phenomenon in İstanbul". Signs, 31, 3, pp. 689-715.
  2. ↑ B. Dağtaş and E. Dağtaş. 2007. "Sivil İtaatsizlik Örneği Olarak 'Cumartesi Anneleri' ('Saturday Mothers' as a Model of Civil Disoberdience)". Kültür ve İletişim.
  3. 1 2 3 "'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.
  4. ↑ "Turkey - Saturday Mothers", AHRC, 1997. Accessed 18 September 2014.
  5. ↑ "The Saturday Mothers", Open Democracy, 4 December 2012. Accessed 18 September 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 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.
  7. ↑ ""Saturday Mothers": Government Must Find Bodies of Disappeared". Bianet. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  8. ↑ "Cumartesi Anneleri/İnsanları 14 Yıldır Kayıpları Soruyor (Saturday Mothers have been asking about the lost ones for 14 years". Bianet. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  9. ↑ Kural, Beyza. "Birinin Kaybedilmesiyle Başlıyor Her Şey" ["It all starts with one forced disappearance"]. Bianet. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  10. ↑ Günaysu, Ayşe. """Cumartesi" Nasıl Başladı, Neden Ara Verildi?" ("How did "Saturday" Mothers start, how was it temporarily halted")". Bianet. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
  11. 1 2 3 "Savaşa Değil, Barışa Yatırım Yapın" ("Invest in Peace not War"), Bianet, 23 June 2012. Accessed 22 July 2012.
  12. 1 2 3 "Susmak Kaybedenleri Cesaretlendirir, Susmayacağız!" ("Silence encourages those who lose, we will not keep silent!"), Bianet, 16 June 2012. Accessed 22 July 2012.
  13. ↑ "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.
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