JINHA

NEWS CENTER – With Turkish president Erdoğan visiting several Northern Kurdistan cities this weekend, this week's Saturday Mothers' action called on the Turkish president to stay home until he solves the problem of forced disappearances.

The Saturday Mothers gathered again this week to demand justice for the disappeared in cities in the cities of Diyarbakır, Batman and Cizre in Northern Kurdistan. The mothers carried photographs of the missing, lost to unsolved murders or under state custody during the Kurdish conflict, and told the stories of those lost under custody.

"It seems the President is honoring our province with his presence today. Honestly, we don't know why he came," said İlyasTarım, lawyer and president of the Batman branch of the Human Rights Association (İHD), speaking at the Batman gathering. İlyas referenced Erdoğan's recently escalating nationalist and anti-Kurdish statements. "We know something, Mr. President. Until you solve the Kurdish problem, the missing, the unsolved murders, we don't want you in Batman."

In the town of Cizre in Şırnak province, the Mothers called for the fate of FettahErden who was lost under custody in the Güçlükonak (Basa) district of Şırnak in 1994.Fettah was abducted by soldiers one day and never seen again. Soldiers then claimed he had never been arrested.

"Executions were carried out openly. They massacred people in an extrajudicial way," said AbdulkerimPusat. He called on the judiciary to finally charge the killers and achieve justice.

(nt/cm)