CALL FOR SOLIDARITY WITH SATURDAY MOTHERS

Date: 25 May 2019 at 12h
Location : Central Station Brussels

17-31 May, International Week of Enforced Disappearances under Custody

We will not forget state enforced disappearances under custody, we will continue to ask from state forces to account for it!

Enforced disappearances under custody continues to be an important problem worldwide. It is used as a strategy for political repression of social opposition by the dominant classes. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to disappear by state forces or paramilitary groups directed by them as a result of this strategy of offence.

From Hitler fascism to US-supported dictatorships in Latin America, fromfrom Turkey to Sri Lanka, from Pakistan to Iraq, Syria, Colombia, Mexico, Baluchistan, Egypt

Morocco, this dirty practice continues globally to be perpetrated by fascist dictatorships.

The state forces practicing it against those, who actively struggle against their regimes based on repression and exploitation, aim at spreading fear, uncertainty and disquiet in society and thereby to silence any social opposition. Workers, trade unionists, journalists, intellectuals, authors, legal counsels, revolutionaries are generally the usual targets of those regimes.

In some parts of the world, the organized struggle of the relatives of the victims, of the revolutionaries and human rights defenders and development of social opposition have achieved to repel this practice of enforced disappearances by state forces. Plaza de Mayo Mothers in Argentina going back many years and Saturday Mothers’ struggle for 24 years in Turkey are leading examples. Let’s step up the solidarity against Turkish state’s attacks on Saturday Mothers and against its practice of isolation in prisons!

The struggle of Saturday Mothers, who started weekly sit-in action in Galatasaray Square in Istanbul on 27 May 1995 to ask the whereabouts of their disappeared relatives and children and to demand the trial of those responsible from disappearances, continues for 24 years despite all the attacks of fascist Erdogan dictatorship.

Since the police crackdown on their 700th week sit-in action on 25 Agust 2018, Saturday Mothers have not been allowed to gather in Galatasaray Square. Yet, they continue to ask the whereabouts of their children despite the police blockage in front of the Human Rights Association each Saturday.

The attacks and preclusions against Saturday Mothers are part of repressions, torture, killings, right violations, and isolation practices perpetrated by Erdogan dictatorship against social opposition.

In protest at these practices and in demand of ending the isolation of PKK’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan, People’s Democratic Party (HDP) MP Leyla Güven started indefinite hunger strike on 7 November 2018. Leyla Güven has soon been joined by thousands of political prisoners in Turkey and political activists in Europe. Among those thousands, 30 political prisoners have turned hunger strike into death fast. Their demand should be met urgently to prevent deaths and to guarantee their right to live. Isolation is a crime against humanity and should be immediately lifted.

Marking the International Week of Enforced Disappearances under Custody, ICAD condemns the attacks of the Turkish state against Saturday Mothers and the relatives of the disappeared, and stands in solidarity with them.

Account for the whereabouts of the disappeared!

Bring those who are responsible from the disappearances on trial!

International Bureau for the International Committee against Disappearances (ICAD)