Saturday Mothers/People: We will Struggle Till the Last Perpetrator is Put on Trial

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

On the occasion of May 17-31 International Day of the Enforced Disappeared, Saturday Mothers/People and the Human Rights Association (İHD) Commission Against Disappearances in Custody released a joint statement for the press today (May 18).

The joint statement made on social media due to novel coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak has noted, "Our quest for truth and justice will continue till the last loss is found and the last perpetrator is put on trial."

Reading out the statement on behalf of Saturday Mothers/People and the İHD, Sebla Arcan from the İHD Commission has stated the following:

"As is known, the crime of enforced disappearance was commonly used as a method to spread fear in society and to silence dissidents in several countries of the world where despotic regimes were in power.

'Denial and impunity have prevailed'

"In the geography that we live in, hundreds of people were detained from their homes, workplaces, fields, automobiles, cafes, bus stops and busses by the security forces of the state for the same reasons and with similar methods. They have never come back.

"Though Saturday Mothers were invited by the then Prime Minister [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan in 2011 and he told them that 'their problem was the problem of his cabinet,' the will to face and come to terms with the practice of enforced disappearance has not been displayed till today.

"All in all, even though governments have changed in time, the policies of denial and impunity have remained the ultimate truth of Turkey.

'Sign the UN Convention'

"We, as the relatives of the losses and human rights defenders, are once again calling on the ones who rule the country on the occasion of Week of the Enforced Disappeared: Immediately sign and implement the United Nations (UN) International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which assigns the states with the responsibility to prevent disappearances in custody and to provide access to truth and justice about the enforced disappearances in the past.

'We will never give up Galatasaray'

"We know that if Turkey, where enforced disappearance is commonly used as a state terror, becomes a party to the UN Convention on the Enforced Disappeared, it will be a start to expose the cases of enforced disappearance and try the perpetrators. We are insistent on this demand of ours.

"As we regard it as the first and most important step to face up to the past and establish justice in the country, we will keep on being insistent on 'investigating the crime of enforced disappearance, identifying the responsible ones and bringing them to justice.

"We will not give up our losses or Galatasaray, which is our meeting place with our losses." (RT/SD)