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http://www.womensenews.org/story/crime-policylegislation/100421/turkish-probe-reignites-the-saturday-mothers -
Website Link Includes Video.
TURKEY - 'SATURDAY MOTHERS' CALL FOR
ANSWERS TO THE DISAPPEARED
April 22, 2010
For about four years women in
With bright red carnations and laminated posters, the
Saturday Mothers of Turkey sit in silence, demanding information about people
who disappeared in the 1990s. Most of the missing were from
They asked the same questions every Saturday at noon from
1995 to 1999.
The vigils started in May 1995 with the disappearance of
Hasan Ocak, who was detained by police in
Now they're back.
"We are telling the stories of our lost
children," said Ayse Yilmaz, a member of
In January 2009 they returned to sit wordlessly together
for half an hour or so, followed by a break in silence to tell the story of one
of the hundreds of sons and daughters who disappeared when fighting intensified
between the Turkish military and the armed guerillas of PKK (Kurdistan Workers'
Party).
The new protests have been sparked by a top-level
investigation that began in 2007 of an organization that may be connected to
the earlier disappearances: Ergenekon, an ultranationalist underground network
of secular powerbrokers and supporters of the Turkish military's power.
Ergenekon (pronounced as ahr-gen-eh-kahn) is named after a mythic Turkish
valley in the
Since the probe began government prosecutors, led by
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have accused some 200 people of plotting
to overthrow the democratically-elected government of the Islamist-rooted AKP
(Justice and Development Party). The Saturday Mothers want the Ergenekon
investigations to include the disappearances of their loved ones.
About 300 people, including writers, professors, editors
and high-ranking military officials, have been detained. Prosecutors say the
group plotted civil unrest, terrorism and assassinations (including the failed
attempt on the life of Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk) to generate chaos and lay the
groundwork for a military coup.
In the past five decades, the military has overthrown
four democratically-elected governments.
This sensational investigation of Ergenekon continues to
grip
One high profile trial has led to confessions of links
between the ultranationalist group and JITEM,
"Following confessions of state elements, some
of the mass graves have been dug and bones were found," Lehman Yurtsever,
a lawyer and member of the
Because of the investigations, information about
extrajudicial killings and rumors about the sites of mass graves have come to
light, Yurtsever said. "It proves what we have been saying for so many
years. This is a small victory for us and encourages us to keep asking."
Amid rising national attention to the investigations, the
Saturday Mothers are now demanding a systematic search of potential mass
graves, including acid wells of the Turkish state-owned Pipeline Corporation
BOTAS in Silopi, in Sirnak province and elsewhere in southeastern Turkey
On a recent breezy Saturday, a group of about 60 people
sat in front of Galatasayray High School on Istiklal Street, in Istanbul's
busiest shopping district.
A unit of bored-looking policemen and women in blue
uniforms stood nearby. Street vendors selling chestnuts, lottery tickets and
stuffed mussels called out to the weekend crowd, hopping between upscale
stores, flea markets and Starbucks coffee shops.
After a few reporters shot photos and videos they made
plans to meet the following Saturday. Then they collected the posters, the red
carnations laid down on the street and dispersed. About 10 minutes later, the
policemen boarded a white bus and drove away.
But despite the muted quality of their vigils, Saturday
Mother Yilmaz said they are the face of a nationwide movement. Families,
particularly mothers, come from across the country. Many musicians, including
U2, have dedicated songs. Film actors and writers show solidarity. Books, poems
and research papers support them.
The first phase of the silent vigils paused because of
constant police harassment. Now the Saturday Mothers quest for answers is
gaining momentum as the siblings and children of the disappeared are leading
the unusually quiet protests.
Kurds are about 20 percent of
Since 1978, PKK has been locked in a separatist guerilla
campaign against the Turkish government. In the quarter-century long conflict,
more than 40,000 lives have been lost.
Fighting intensified during the 1990s, when hundreds, the
exact number is unknown, disappeared. Disappearances peaked in 1994, according
to a 1998 Amnesty International Report, "
Many of the victims were suspected of political
activities. Some worked for Kurdish rights groups, some were sympathizers, a
few refused to work as village guards, a militia force set up by the Turkish
state to patrol the southeastern Kurdish villages.
Many were ordinary Kurdish villagers, suspected of
harboring PKK fighters, according to the report.
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