Police crackdown on Saturday Mothers: 13 detained

Police in Istanbul once again intervened against a demonstration of Saturday Mothers, a group of women who have been gathering at Galatasaray Square since 1995 to demand justice and accountability for their children who were victims of forced disappearances in the 1980s and 1990s in Turkey.

At least 13 people, including Eren Keskin, the Chairperson of the Human Rights Association (IHD,) were detained, after the the group was rounded up in their 947th week of their protest.

Some of the detainees were reverse cuffed.

Despite a decision by Turkey's Constitutional Court (AYM) in 2019 that declared the government's ban on demonstrations in Galatasaray Square as a violation of freedom of assembly, police have continued to impose a blockade around the area, preventing the Saturday Mothers from holding their weekly vigil.

Since the first week of April, the Saturday Mothers have attempted to resume their weekly gatherings in Galatasaray Square every Saturday, but the police, who do not recognize the AYM's ruling on the violation of rights, have intervened and arrested them every week.