Crackdown on "Saturday Mothers" demonstration
Police in Istanbul used water canons and tear gas against a group of protesters known as the Saturday Mothers to break up their 700th demonstration. Apart from one major break, the women have been meeting every Saturday since 1995 to remember relatives who were arrested and disappeared in the 1980s and 1990s. What can the AKP do to resolve the situation?
Mothers' wounds must be healed
It's in the state's interests to show interest in finding out what happened to those who disappeared, T24 points out:
“Once again there has been a major, brutal crackdown on the Saturday Mothers. Why? What's behind this anger? Why is violence unleashed on peaceful demonstrators? ... As they say, fire burns where it falls. And fire that comes to rest in mothers' hearts is not easily put out. Wounds that do not heal, regardless of how deep they are, are a danger to society. The government must know that. Let's hope everything will be done to ensure that the rule of law, democracy and human rights prevail, so that the Saturday fire does not spread as time goes on.”
Leave the AKP out of it!
These mothers' children went missing decades ago so the AKP bears no responsibility for their disappearance, Yeni Akit stresses:
“Is there anything the Saturday Mothers can hold against the AKP government? No, there isn't. On the contrary, they should be praying for this government every morning and evening. ... As if the unsolved murders had been committed under the AKP government. Spearheaded by the long arm of the PKK - the HDP members of parliament - a senseless polemic against the government was waged at the Saturday Mothers' 700th protest. Resistance against the police, attacks with chairs and so on. No matter how you look at it: these are baneful incidents coming right in the wake of the [Muslim] Festival of Sacrifice.”