WEEK 412: Saturday Mothers Commemorate Their Beloved Ones

With the demand to learn about their beloved ones who disappeared in the 1990s, Saturdays mothers/people assembled at Istanbul's Galatasaray Square for the 412th time on Saturday morning.

This week, Saturday people commemorated Rıdvan Karakoç who has been detained by police on February 20, 1995 early 1995 and found tortured to death on March 2, 1995.

"For 18 years we have been suggesting evidence that might lead to culprits of our beloved ones. We have been crying that at least our beloved ones deserve a gravestone. But the officials are deaf to our calls. Maybe my brother is the luckies one since his dead body was found. We can go and visit his grave. But our struggle will continue as long as their cases go unpunished," Hasan Karakoç, brother of Rıdvan Karakoç, said.

"We were looking for my missing brother Hasan Ocak in Beykoz General Attorney's Office Database," Hüseyin Ocak, brother of another missing person, said. "Though we came up with Rıdvan Karakoç's photo, which eventually led us to the discovery of his body in an anonymous cemetery. There are many other registries in Beykoz General Attorney's Office. The Turkish state must face its past."

Besna Tosun, daughter of Fehmi Tosun who has been missing since 1995, read this week's statement of Saturday People, demanding transparent, independent and efficient investigations on Turkey's missing people.

"The investigations are hampered by statute of limitations, confidentiality orders and top secret documents. The culprits also go unpunished. Before Rıdvan Karakoç went missing in 1995, police used to call his apartment every single day. Even though the authorities knew who detained Rıdvan Karakoç, they didn't find them. We will continue our struggle as long as the impunity will go on," the statement said. (EKN/BM)