Dozens joined an action in Swedish capital city Stockholm in solidarity with Saturday Mothers who have been asking to learn about the aftermath of their children and relatives disappeared under the custody of state forces for 23 years. The mothers and human rights defenders accompanying them have been staging sit-in at Istanbul’s Galatasaray Square for 700 weeks.

During the demonstration which was held at Raoul Wallenberg Square upon the call of Solidarity Union, Women’s Peace Initiative, Stockholm Alevi Cultural Centre and Arts Union, people held the photographs of disappeared people.

Women’s Peace Initiative leader Latife Fegan, journalist-author Ragıp Zarakolu and HDP MP Zeynel Özen delivered speeches voicing solidarity with the committed struggle of Saturday Mothers and condemning the brutal crackdown of the police on the 700th gathering yesterday.

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) MP Zeynel Özen stressed that the perpetrators of disappearances were not unidentified people but paramilitary gangs. He said also the graves of his nephew and cousin, both victims of disappearance under custody, were not known.

Özen pointed out that the one-man rule in Turkey has annihilated the separation of powers and rendered the parliament dysfunctional.

“If we aren’t present in the streets and at the barricades, we won’t be in the parliament either. There is nothing we can do there”, he added.