Saturday Mothers’ 700-week wait

With the Saturday Mothers keeping alive the stories of people who have vanished/been killed while in custody, they both prevent them from falling into oblivion and lend visibility to a political wrong. The bones the Saturday Mothers are seeking basically serve as the foundations on which justice will be made to tower up above them. This turns every citizen into the Saturday Mothers’ heir. They seek justice with perseverance and persistence despite massive pain, sorrow and obstacles. If one day we are able to institute justice in this country, we will stand on the floor they have laid with their powerful resolve.

 Peace academic Prof. Dr. Zerrin Kurtoğlu, who was expelled from Ege University under a decree with the force of law, said that the Saturday Mothers were keeping society’s relations with the past alive. Recalling that for 700 weeks the relatives of the missing have been seeking their relatives’ bones and justice that has fallen into ruin along with those bones, Kurtoğlu said, “Through this non-violent public action, the Saturday Mothers both, by keeping alive the stories of people who have vanished/been killed while in custody, prevent them from falling into oblivion and being forgotten, and lend visibility to a political wrong.” Stressing that the only way to be able to remain human with each instance of a person vanishing while in custody and being killed by the state’s security forces is through persistence in the demand for peace, Kurtoğlu noted, “The mere uttering of the word ‘peace’ frightens people. This is no laughing matter at all! In fact, we have no other salvation apart from peace! The Saturday Mothers are keeping society’s relations with the past alive. They are calling on society to open the black pages of their own social past and see. The truth is that the mothers’ invitation to peace is so important! It is impossible to establish peace without coming to terms with the past.” I spoke to Kurtoğlu about the Saturday Mothers’ years-long resistance.

 Justice is not a favour

 The Saturday Mothers’ sit-down action has been going on for such a long time but officialdom is silent. The wish is for murders by unknown perpetrators to be covered up. Do you think the Saturday Mothers will be able to attain justice in this country?

 The Saturday Mothers/People have since 1995, that is for 23 years, sought justice for their relatives who vanished while in custody. If we deduct the ten-year break taken due to harsh police interventions, yes, for 700 days every Saturday they have sat down in Galatasaray Square asking, “The perpetrators are known so where are the vanished?” and sought justice that has fallen into ruin along with those bones! Through this non-violent public action, they both, by keeping alive the stories of people who have vanished/been killed while in custody, prevent them from falling into oblivion and being forgotten, and lend visibility to a political wrong. They want justice so as to learn the fate of their children, husbands and brothers most of whom appear in official records as being still alive, and they want justice so as to be able to mourn for their dead and be able to bury them properly in a manner that accords with human dignity. Berfo Mother’s last wish was to be able to touch the bones of her son Cemil. This decisive and masterful action by the Saturday Mothers may make possible not the attaining, but the instituting of justice, because justice is a political value that is not attained but is instituted. And to this end, these people’s demands must be turned into the demand of society as a whole, too, and a struggle must be waged for this demand to be met, because justice, just like rights, is not a favour; it is obtained not given!

 I MUST OBJECT

 The places of those mothers who were forced to depart from Galatasaray Square for reasons such as illness and decease have been bequeathed to their other children or grandchildren. What would you like to say about this as one of the academics for peace?

 Yes, over time the Saturday Children have begun to take the Saturday Mothers’ places. As they have had to vacate that square in bodily terms for reasons such as death or illness, the mothers have bequeathed their unanswered questions and demands for justice to their children and grandchildren. Unfortunately, the state was even placing its hope in the mothers’ demise. Recall the defence when Berfo Mother passed away in 2013 presented by the Ministry of Justice in the case being heard at the European Court of Human Rights into Cemil Kırbayır’s disappearance in the 12 September 1980 period: “Berfo Mother has died. There is no information or documentation whereby her heirs are to have the case pursued. The case must be abated!” In fact, crimes against humanity are publicly prosecuted cases. The heirs of these trials are not first or second-degree relatives but all citizens who demand and wish for the installation of social peace, because justice is instituted through political struggle and the vanishing or killing of one of the people waging this struggle is an irreparable loss to society as a whole. At its simplest, I have been deprived of the opportunity to become acquainted with, for example, Hasan Ocak, Cemil Kırbayır, Lütfiye Kaçar or Hatice Şimşek, to engage in discussion with them about peace, about democracy and about human rights, and to struggle together with them. More importantly, I as a citizen must object to the citizen’s position of insecurity vis a vis the state over every person the state loses. So, the bones the Saturday Mothers are seeking basically serve as the foundations on which justice will be made to tower up above them and, consequently, each citizen has the status of a Saturday Mothers’ heir.

 PERSISTENCE OVER PEACE

 I am of the view that the only way to be able to remain human with each instance of a person vanishing while in custody and being killed by the state’s security forces is through persistence in the demand for peace. How unfortunate that the penalizing of the social demand for peace by ruling bodies that start wars for reasons that would not fill a hazelnut shell leads to baleful consequences for society. The mere uttering of the word ‘peace’ frightens people. This is no laughing matter at all! In fact, we have no other salvation apart from peace! The Saturday Mothers are keeping society’s relations with the past alive. They are calling on society to open the black pages of their own social past and see. The truth is that this invitation is so important for true peace! It is impossible to establish peace without coming to terms with the past!

 “Had their demands been met, we would be living in a different Turkey today”

 President Erdoğan spoke to the Saturday Mothers at the time he was prime minister. The mothers handed a dossier to Erdoğan and asked for the culprits to be found in their relatives’ cases. Seven years have passed since the meeting. Erdoğan has become president. How do you account for the failure for the president who has amassed virtually all powers to make a move in relation to the Saturday Mothers?

 The sole benefit of this meeting, I suppose, was the official acceptance that Berfo Mother’s son Cemil Kırbayır vanished while in custody. The conclusion was reached in the report compiled by the Parliamentary Human Rights Examination Commission set up at Erdoğan’s behest following the meeting that Cemil Kırbayır had been tortured to death following his arrest in Göle on 13 September 1980 and his body had been destroyed through burning. I think this was a most important step but there was no follow up, because, despite the commission’s criminal complaint, the prosecution refused to bring proceedings. Even the parliamentary commission’s report has been covered up. But, you see, on one occasion the record “killed by the state” has entered the parliamentary archives. There was in fact a good road map for a sovereign who wanted to institute justice in the file submitted to Erdoğan by the Saturday Mothers in 2011: had such demands that limited the state’s power sphere as establishing a Truth Commission, accepting vanishing through torture and coercion to be a crime against humanity and abolishing the time limit on crimes against humanity been met, we could be living in a different Turkey today.

 However, we realized from the most recent elections that the prosecution of Mehmet Ağar and Tansu Çiller, alleged to be responsible for those in the 90’s who were kidnapped and murdered in custody, those who were thrown into acid pits, those whose bodies were found in police station rubbish tips and those whose graves are in unknown places, does not appear to be possible, at least in the short term. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s appearance during his campaign as presidential candidate along with these figures who are alleged to have committed crimes against humanity was in my opinion also demeaning for Erdoğan. Salt was poured onto the Saturday Mothers’ never-closing wounds through this image of alliance.

 THE MOST STABLE POLITICAL ACTION IN THIS COUNTRY

 When we look at civil disobedience actions in the world and Turkey, how do you rate the Saturday Mothers’ place within these actions and the mothers’ resolve?

 Civil disobedience actions are not particularly possible in societies like ours. Initially, this is because disobedience of all kinds is deemed to be rebellion owing to Islamic culture that manages society’s relations with the state from the very depths of the collective imagination and preaches to society that the state is what really matters and what is essential! There is no difference in Islamic culture between objection and rebellion! On the other hand, because there is no social contract on which we are to base such an action, either. But, even so, there have of course been actions of limited number in Turkey that we can call civil disobedience. The Saturday Mothers’ actions are also classified as civil disobedience.

 WITH PERSEVERANCE AND PERSISTENCE

 I imagine that the most stable political action in this country is theirs. They seek justice with perseverance and persistence despite massive pain and sorrow and massive obstacles. They have never given up. If one day we are able to institute justice in this country, we will stand on the floor they have laid with their powerful resolve.

 On the other hand, I think a civil disobedience action is a demand for legitimacy. The founding principles of this action are to object to an individual law or political act by the ruling body thought to lack legitimacy or, put differently, to be unfair because it is contrary to human honour and abolishes or breaches a common good so as to change it but by remaining within the legal system in general, and to lend public visibility to this objection without involving violence. I think that in our current situation there does not exist a legal/constitutional system within which we can manoeuvre.

 DISOBEDIENCE DIFFICULT

 As the Turkish-style presidential system lacks a checking mechanism that will limit the president’s acts and deeds, I think this amounts to a transition from a law-based state to a coercive state. The sovereign in a coercive state, in turn, has no interest in legitimacy. The sovereign now more than ever merits the definition as being the one who decides on the exception. Additionally, in an environment in which social cohesion has been ruptured through the very sovereign’s policies of polarisation and institutions including the judiciary retain absolutely no institutional autonomy, it is hard to see the continuation of disobedience confined to the civilian arena considering that the objection to a single law or regulation will inevitable end up as an objection to the system. So, perhaps we now need to sit down asking, “The vanished are known so where are the perpetrators?”

 THE WORLD IS WITH YOU

 The Plaza de Mayo Mothers in Argentina previously lent their support to the Saturday Mothers. Support has come from all corners of the globe to calls for solidarity made in the 700th week of the Saturday Mothers. Actions will be staged in Germany, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, England, Canada, Australia, Spain, Scotland, Mexico, Italy, Greece and Cyprus to coincide with the action to be held in Galatasaray Square at 12:00.

 Cumartesi Anneleri 700. haftada haykırıyor: Bitmeyen bekleyiş