Human Rights Organizations Stand in Solidarity with Saturday Mothers:
End This Baseless Trial!
23 November 2021
Saturday Mothers had been holding their peaceful vigils since 1995 in İstanbul’s Galatasaray Square demanding to learn the fates of their loved ones who had been subjected to enforced disappearance and to access justice.
The police used unnecessary and extreme force against the group composed of the relatives of the disappeared, human rights defenders and members of the parliament who peacefully assembled in the square for their 700th sit-in on 25 August 2018. The police battered tens of people, dragged them on the street, and arrested 47 people in the square smothered in pepper gas. Galatasaray Square has been closed to all protests since then.
Many of those who participated in Saturday Mothers’ peaceful vigils have been subjected to repression, harassment, extreme use of force, arbitrary arrests, and unfair trials for 26 years. Those who participated in the sit-in on 25 August were exercising their rights guaranteed both by domestic law and international human rights law as has been the case with all vigils held since May 1995.
Administrative and legal appeals lodged before the authorities to initiate investigations into the police officers, who used unnecessary and extreme force against the group that did not commit any kind of illegal act whatsoever and injured at least 12 people, were all rejected. Instead of initiating investigations, however, the authorities brought a lawsuit against 46 people who were indeed exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly charging them with “unarmed participation in unlawful meetings and demonstrations and refusing to disperse on their own accord despite warnings.”
This baseless trial is one of the examples of judicial harassment aiming to repress and intimidate the civil society, human rights defenders and people who peacefully express their dissident views in Turkey. Those who stand trial include human rights defenders, journalists, and relatives of the forcibly disappeared. This trial is an attempt to silence the Saturday Mothers and those who support their demand for justice. Thus, representatives of human rights organizations will be at the Çağlayan Courthouse in order to monitor the hearing to be held before the 21st Criminal Court of First Instance on 24 November 2021 at 10:30.
We, the undersigned members of the Human Rights Defenders Solidarity Network and Human Rights Joint Platform, reiterate our call for the acquittal of all 46 persons standing trial and to guarantee the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
Saturday Mothers are not alone.
Human rights organizations stand in solidarity with Saturday Mothers.
Signatories:
AĞ-DA Gender Equality Solidarity Network
Amnesty International Turkey
Association for Monitoring Equal Rights
Citizens Assembly
Civic Space Studies Association
Civil Rights Defenders
Human Rights Agenda Association
Human Rights Association
Human Rights Foundation of Turkey
Life Memory and Freedom Association
Media and Law Studies Association
P24 Independent Journalism Platform
Research Institute on Turkey
Rights Initiative Association
Society and Legal Research Foundation
Truth Justice Memory Center
Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project
Turkey-Germany Cultural Forum