Mizgin Adım/JINHA

ŞIRNEX – The Saturday Mothers in the town of Cizre, in Northern Kurdistan, says they won’t give up until they achieve justice for their relatives.

As happens in cities across Turkey, the group Saturday Mothers gathers in this town in Northern Kurdistan every Saturday to share the story of one of the disappeared. Most were lost in Turkish security forces’ violent repression in the Kurdish region.

Kewzê Uytun, a Saturday Mother, lost her 18-month-old baby Mehmet when police struck him with a gas canister fired at their family home in 2009. Police were intervening against the protests of the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan.

“I went to hang up the washing, and Mehmet came after me. I picked him up and put him in my lap. Then I looked and his head had dropped onto my shoulder,” she said. “They aimed at both of us, but they hit my son.”

Kewzê says that although a court ordered that the family be paid reparations, “I don’t want their 20 thousand lira; I want my son’s killers.” Courts said that fault was with Kewzê for letting her child go outside.

Although evidence in the case is fairly clear, this is not always enough to secure justice in the Kurdish region, where security officers generally act with impunity. Kewzê refuses to stop until she gets justice.

“What did my son do? Did he go to a demonstration?” she asked. She named her next child Mehmet in his honor.

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