Saturday Mother Elmas Eren Loses Her Life

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Elmas Eren has lost her life at the age of 88 yesterday. 24-year-old Hayrettin Eren was detained on November 21, 1980 after the military coup on September 12 and was disappeared in custody.

Elmas Eren was one of the Saturday Mothers/People who have been struggling to learn the fate and whereabouts of the ones who were subjected to enforced disappearance in Turkey over the years and have been demanding justice for the disappeared.

'I settle for a single bone of my son'

Elmas Eren was also among the relatives of the disappeared who met Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the then Prime Minister, in 2011. Eren told Erdoğan, "I settle for a single bone of my son. I want the grave of my son from you."

If Hayrettin Eren had been alive, he would be 65 years today.

How was Hayrettin Eren disappeared?

Hayrettin Eren was taken into custody in Saraçhane, İstanbul on November 21, 1980, a month and 9 days after the military coup on September 12, 1980. He was in Saraçhane to meet his friend Ahmet Öztürk.

When Elmas Eren asked his son at the Karagümrük Police Station, she saw the name of his son among the name of the detained. The ones at the police station said that Hayrettin Eren was referred to the police station in Gayrettepe.

When Elmas Eren went to Gayrettepe to ask his son there, he saw the car driven by her son parked in front of the police station. Nevertheless, when she went inside, she was told, "There is no one detained here under this name."

Detained in the operation, Ahmet Öztürk, Ahmet Ok, Şaban Arslan, Turgut Karataş and Fevzi Rakıcı witnessed the detention and interrogation of Hayrettin Eren. Ahmet Öztürk said, "I am a witness, I saw him both at the police station and the department of political offenses."

The longest protest of Turkey

It was 24 years ago on May 27, 1995 that Saturday Mothers/People gathered for the first time at Galatasaray Square for the ones disappeared in custody.

The first sit-in protests started after the deceased body of Hasan Ocak, who was taken into custody on March 21, 1995, was found in the Cemetery of the Nameless after being tortured.

The Saturday protests in Galatasaray were interrupted for an indefinite period of time on March 13, 1999 due to heavy police intervention for the last three years. The interruption continued for 10 years.

The silent sit-in protests of Saturday Mothers/People, which they started again at Galatasaray Square in 2009, continued until the police intervention in August 2018. The relatives of the ones disappeared in custody and rights defenders have been prevented from reading out their statements and coming together at Galatasaray Square since then.

For that reason, the weekly sessions of Saturday Mothers/People are held and statements for the press are read out in front of the Human Rights Association (İHD) İstanbul Office in Beyoğlu, İstanbul. (PT/SD)