Police in Istanbul have arrested more than a dozen members and supporters of the Saturday Mothers on the grounds of a violation of an official ban on assemblies at Galatasaray Square. Among those taken into custody are relatives of the "disappeared" and several human rights activists, including Human Rights Association (IHD) Co-Chair lawyer Eren Keskin.

For their 953rd weekly action, the Saturday Mothers initiative came together in Istanbul today to express their decades-old demand for information about the whereabouts of people who have disappeared in state custody and the punishment of murders by unknown perpetrators. From different starting points in the central district of Beyoğlu, the participants managed to move via the shopping streets Istiklal and Meşrutiyet in front of the Galatasaray High School although the police had partially cordoned off the city centre and so-called anti-riot squads were patrolling side streets. At their destination, the group, accompanied by the Green Left Party parliamentarians Ceylan Akça and Kezban Konukçu, was surrounded.

"We are here today to make a peaceful statement according to our constitutional right," said Keskin, and criticised the "illegitimate" ban on assemblies against the Saturday Mothers' vigil and accused the police of flouting a ruling by the Constitutional Court. Turkey's highest court had ruled in February that the bans on demonstrations against the initiative ordered since 2018 were illegal and rejected objections by the Interior Ministry, which justified the restrictions on the freedom of assembly and demonstration with an alleged threat to public order posed by the Saturday Mothers.

For thirteen weeks, the group's vigils have therefore again taken place on Istiklal Avenue, in a small side street in front of the Istanbul IHD office. The police ignore the ruling of the Constitutional Court and break up the protest week after week by using violence and arrests. With their hands partly tied behind their backs, at least fifteen members of the Saturday Mothers were taken away by the police today. In addition to Eren Keskin, IHD Istanbul chairperson Gülseren Yoleri and IHD board member Leman Yurtsever, those detained include Hanife Yıldız, Mikail Kırbayır, Ali Ocak, Besna Tosun, Sebla Arcan, Hatice Korkmaz, İsmail Yücel, Gülendam Özdemir, Ömer Kavran and Deniz Aytaç, former HDP MP Oya Ersoy and Armenian journalist Arat Dink.