JINHA

ISTANBUL – The Saturday Mothers, who demonstrate every week in Istanbul's Galatasary Square for justice for their disappeared loved ones, said that as Turkish officials make their Mother's Day announcements tomorrow, they will be ignoring the struggle and suffering of mothers who can't have a happy Mother's Day this year.

The Saturday Mothers gathered for their 528th week of action today, calling for the trial of the perpetrators and the revealing of the fates of their loved ones, lost under custody. They carried their traditional red carnations, photographs of the missing and a sign with the question: "we know the perpetrators, where are the missing?"

This week, the demonstration was dedicated to Kasım Alpsoy and Halil Alpsoy, both lost under custody in 1994.

"Tomorrow's Mothers Day, but it has no meaning for us," said Hanım Tosun, wife of Fehmi Tosun, who disappeared while under arrest in 1995. Referring to the Saturday Mother Berfo Kırbayır, who died at the age of 105 without ever knowing the fate of her son, Hanım Tosun said: "Mother Berfo used to say, 'leave my grave open and bury my son next to me.' There are thousands of women in Kurdistan and the big cities [of Turkey] who say the same."

Fikriye Alpsoy, Halil Alpsoy's wife, noted that although when current president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was prime minister, he promised to try the perpetrators of enforced disappearances and to find the graves of the missing, the state had never followed through on its promise.

(ödk-mı/fk/cm)