SATURDAY MOTHERS

Campaigning Award | Nominee | Freedom of Expression Awards

The Saturday Mothers are the longest ongoing peaceful human rights movement in Turkey. They first gathered on 27 May 1995 at Galatasaray Square in Istanbul, carrying the photographs of their forcibly disappeared loved ones, to voice their demands to know the whereabouts of their relatives which had been forcibly disappeared in detention by state forces, and for all perpetrators to face trial. Since then, despite all attempts at prevention and prohibition that have targeted them, they have continued their search for truth and justice.

The struggle of the Saturday Mothers made it seen that enforced disappearances were not merely individual tragedies but grave human rights violations concerning the common conscience of society. By resisting the state’s policies of denial and impunity against the cases of enforced disappearances that had intensified in the 1990s, they became a symbol of the struggle for truth and justice.

There are mothers, spouses, siblings, children and grandchildren among the Saturday Mothers, and together, they send out a collective call for justice. Their peaceful resistance also provides inspiration for other relatives of the forcibly disappeared and human rights defenders across the world.

Today, too, the Saturday Mothers are supported by both domestic and international human rights organizations as they voice their determination to continue their struggle until the fate of their relatives is revealed, and all perpetrators face trial. Their existence reminds the world that they will never give up their demand for truth and justice, freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly.