1000th Week: 1000 Weeks with the Unchanging Profound Pain and the Unchanging Resilience!
25 May 2024
Today we come together here for the 1000th time with the same profound pain and the same resilience.
1000 weeks… That is 7000 days, 229 months… That is a lifetime of searching…
We are Saturday Mothers/People. We are mothers, fathers, spouses, siblings, children, nephews, nieces, grandchildren. In other words, we are like you.
But, in fact, we have one difference from you.
We have the same deep wound in our hearts; the indescribable pain of not even having the graves of our loved ones.
Our loved ones were taken into custody by the security forces of the state and we never heard from them again. Either months or years later we found their bodies bearing traces of severe torture in the cemetery where they were secretly buried as “John/Jane Does,” or we found no trace of them at all. All that remains of them are their names and their photographs in our arms.
Look at our loved ones whose photographs we carry in our arms. They were just like you. They were workers, tradesmen, taxi drivers, farmers, doctors, pharmacists, nurses, prison guards, lawyers, journalists, teachers, engineers, business people, primary, high school and university students, politicians, trade unionists. They were our most loved ones…
For 1000 weeks, we have been coming together in Galatasaray Square with a never-ending pain and at the same time with never-ending hope: We want our loved ones taken away by the state back! We want to know their fates!
For 1000 weeks, we have been asking: Where are our disappeared ones?
For 1000 weeks, we have been asking: Why are those who subjected our loved ones to enforced disappearance, the perpetrators and those responsible for this crime against humanity protected with impunity?
For 1000 weeks we have been crying out: We do not forget, we do not forget, we will never forget.
For 1000 weeks we have been crying out: We do not give up, we do not give up, we will never give up.
Since 27 May 1995, we have gathered at Galatasaray Square every week at 12.00. Galatasaray has been our voice and of our disappeared. Sometimes we were prevented, sometimes banned, sometimes dispersed by violence and force. We were detained and put on trial, but we did not give up our insistence even for a split second. How could we give up? They were the apples of our eyes!
We cannot touch our loved ones who disappeared in custody, but every Saturday we proudly carry their pictures. We cannot put flowers on their graves, but every Saturday we leave a carnation in Galatasaray Square for them.
This tradition will be passed down from generation to generation. Every eye that sees Galatasaray Square, every stone in that square is a witness to this great shame of the state and the resistance of the Saturday Mothers!
In our 1000th week, we come before the public with a single demand: We want our disappeared ones.
We want to leave our carnations not at Galatasaray, but at the real graves of our loved ones.
We want them to have a trace, a place in the lands where they were born and lived.
In our 1000th week, we declare once again: We will not give up, we will not give up, we will not give up looking for our loved ones until we find them.
Saturday Mothers
Human Rights Association İstanbul Branch
Commission against Enforced Disappearances