Saturday Mothers mark 1118th week with call for accountability

For the 1118th consecutive week, the Saturday Mothers convened in Istanbul's Galatasaray Square, continuing their decades-long vigil. Since 1995, they have gathered to demand answers about their loved ones who disappeared while in state custody and to call for the prosecution of those responsible.

Standing before barricades surrounding the square, the mothers drew attention to the fact that the following day, August 30, marks the International Day of the Disappeared. They issued a statement, read by Sebla Arcan, a relative of a disappeared person, which detailed their ongoing struggle.

"Our loved ones were detained by security forces and never returned," the statement read. "Instead of revealing their fate, the state denied it. Investigations were neutralized. Evidence was obscured. Perpetrators and those responsible were protected. The crime was covered up through denial and impunity. If we are still forced to search for our disappeared today, to ask where they are, and to pursue the truth, it is because the system of denial and impunity continues."

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Our loved ones were detained by security forces and never returned. Instead of revealing their fate, the state denied it. Investigations were neutralized. Evidence was obscured. Perpetrators and those responsible were protected. The crime was covered up through denial and impunity. If we are still forced to search for our disappeared today, to ask where they are, and to pursue the truth, it is because the system of denial and impunity continues.

The mothers directed a strong message to the country's leadership: "The state's duty is not to hide crimes, but to uncover them. It is not to protect perpetrators, but to ensure they are held accountable. It is not to silence families, but to guarantee their right to know the truth. We do not accept the normalization of a system that produces violations. Without confronting the grave crimes of the past, without revealing the truth, without recognizing the rights of victims, and without eliminating impunity, there can be no talk of genuine peace and democracy."

The statement concluded with the powerful assertion: "There is no justice without truth, no peace without justice, and no democracy without confrontation."

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The state's duty is not to hide crimes, but to uncover them. It is not to protect perpetrators, but to ensure they are held accountable. It is not to silence families, but to guarantee their right to know the truth. We do not accept the normalization of a system that produces violations. Without confronting the grave crimes of the past, without revealing the truth, without recognizing the rights of victims, and without eliminating impunity, there can be no talk of genuine peace and democracy.