Saturday Mothers/People Lay Carnations on Galatasaray Square

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On the 24th anniversary of their first gathering at Galatasaray Square in Taksim, İstanbul, Saturday Mothers/People laid carnations on the square surrounded by police barricades today (May 27).

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 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.

Taking to Galatasaray surrounded by police barricades in the 24th year of their first gathering there, Saturday Mothers/People said, "We will not give up Galatasaray Square, which is our meeting place with our losses."

Tanrıkulu: This square is witness to 24-year struggle

Human rights defender Nimet Tanrıkulu, one of the people who laid carnations on the square today, has spoken to bianet and explained the significance of Galatasaray Square for Saturday Mothers/People as follows:

"As the ones we have lost do not have any memorials and graves, the square means something special for the relatives of the disappeared.

"This square bears witness to a 24-year struggle, where the ones without a place are commemorated.

"And today, we were again there to commemorate our losses and to say that perpetrators should be found, impunity should be ended and ban on Galatasaray should be lifted."

* Click here to view the gallery "Saturday Mothers - May 27, 1995"

(TP/SD)