Kurdish mothers protest against forced disappearances of Kurds

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The saturday mothers held their 367th weekly protest against forced disappearances of Kurdish people in Turkey. They initially began this weekly protest between 1995 and 1999 but had to stop because of ill-treatment and detention. On March 2009, the saturday mothers started their campaigning again.

They held weekly sit-ins in Istanbul, Diyarbakir, Batman and Sirnak today. Human rights activist Nur Sürer is quoted to have said the following:

“It has been a year since Cemil Kırbayır’s murder by the state has been revealed. Cemil has still no grave and those responsible are not tried. Is this the way to settle accounts with the September 12 military coup? Veysel Güney’s body, who was executed, has still not been given to his family. Is this the way to settle accounts? You are charging all who oppose to your policies of oppression. Is this the way to settle accounts with the September 12?

The two surviving leaders of Turkey’s 1980 military coup have gone on trial charged with overthrowing the civilian government. You can read more about that here.