JINHA

ISTANBUL – In Istanbul's Saturday Mothers' 526th weekly justice action yesterday, the photographsthe 250 Armenian intellectuals arrested on the first day of the Armenian Genocide took pride of place along the photographs of the missing relatives of the Mothers themselves. This week, Saturday Mothers' dedicated their action to honoring the victims of the Armenian Genocide on its 100th anniversary.

"When my grandmother told us about the Armenian Genocide, it was just like a simple story," said Muzaffer Yedigöl. "But when we grew up, we faced the truth. To remain silent towards massacres is to become a party to those massacres." The Mothers dedicated their action this week at Galatasaray Square in downtown Istanbul to victims of the Armenian genocide—especially the 250 Armenian intellectuals rounded up on April 24and "deported" to holding centers where they were later killed.

Arlin Abatiyan, whose grandfather Tutyan was one of the intellectuals arrested on April 24, came from the U.S. to attend the memorial. Arlin noted thatTutyan and the other intellectuals were lost twice: first in body, then in memory, thanks to Turkey's policies of genocide denial.

The Mothers demand justice every week for those who has been lost and disappeared by the Turkish state in their sit-in at Galatasaray Square.

"No crime against humanity stays in the past," said Saturday Mother Sebla Saycan. "Denied, unconfronted and unaccounted for crimes against humanity ensure the continuation of the deep state tradition and the violence of the state."

The Mothers held a five-minute sit-in. They will be back next week with their characteristic red carnations in their hands.

In the Kurdistan cities of Diyarbakır, Batman and Yüksekova and the Aegean region-city of Izmir, the Human Rights Association (İHD) and relatives of the disappeared also dedicated their weekly actions to remembering the victims of the genocide this week alongside the victims lost in unprosecuted statekillings in Kurdistan during the 1990s.

(nt/dc-ed/fk/cm)