Saturday Mothers have continued their action in Istanbul for their relatives who disappeared in state custody and the punishment of the perpetrators for the 950th week. Despite a contrary ruling by the Turkish Constitutional Court, the initiative was again denied access to their ancestral rally site in front of the Galatasaray High School on Istiklal Avenue.

The Galatasaray Square in front of the high school of the same name in the central district of Beyoğlu, where the Saturday Mothers' sit-in was to take place, has been widely cordoned off by police barriers since early morning. Galatasaray Square is considered a symbolic place for the struggle for human rights in Turkey. Riot police deployed with a large contingent immediately surrounded the group on the alleged grounds of "increased risk of attack by terrorist groups as there was a large number of people because of a Champions League match.”

20 members and supporters of the initiative were taken into custody in the crackdown, including human rights activist Maside Ocak, sister of the Kurdish teacher Hasan Ocak, who was murdered in state custody in 1995.

Green Left Party MP Burcugül Çubuk criticised the police action against the Saturday Mothers, whose vigils have been arbitrarily banned and members detained by the use of force.

“This is happening despite a clear ruling by the Turkish Constitutional Court, which has ruled that the restrictions on Saturday Mothers' gatherings are unlawful. It is also sad that today the police took away two people who were showing solidarity with the Saturday Mothers. We are dealing with an isolation of the streets," said Çubuk.

In 1995, women in Istanbul took to the streets for the first time to draw attention to relatives who had been arrested and then disappeared. Since a large-scale attack on the Saturday Mothers ordered by the Ministry of Interior in the summer five years ago, Galatasaray Square has been a no-go zone for the Saturday Mothers. But this is contrary to the right to freedom of assembly and demonstration, ruled the Turkish Constitutional Court on 22 February 2023, rejecting the ministry's objection that the Saturday Mothers threatened the "protection of public order". "Everyone has the right to take part in unarmed and peaceful assemblies and demonstrations without prior permission," says Article 34 of the Turkish Constitution, which the security authorities violated by banning the Saturday Mothers' forcefully dispersed action in August 2018 and all subsequent ones. The blockade of the square is therefore invalid, said the court ruling. The Turkish Interior Ministry and the Istanbul police ignore the ruling and continue to violently crack down on Saturday Mothers.