At their 1074th vigil, the Saturday Mothers in Istanbul have once again demanded justice for victims of enforced disappearance. This week's rally in Galatasaray Square focused on the fate of Yusuf Nergiz, who disappeared without trace in 1997 after his arrest in the Kurdish province of Amed (tr. Diyarbakır).

As every week, members and supporters of the initiative gathered at the cordoned-off rally site with red carnations and photos of missing persons. Since the 1990s, the Saturday Mothers have been demanding a full investigation into the cases of people who disappeared while in state custody, so far mostly without success.

Arrested, released, disappeared

Former HDP MP Oya Ersoy described the last known movements of Yusuf Nergiz, a father of six, at the rally. The then 70-year-old man lived in the city of Amed and farmed land in his native village of Narlıca in the district of Kulp. On September 30, 1997, his house was searched by soldiers, Nergiz was arrested and taken to the gendarmerie base in Kulp. Three days later, he was released.

That same day, Nergiz called his wife to inform her and set off on his way back to Amed. At the bus station, he happened to meet his sister and told her about the arrest. He bought a ticket for the bus with the license plate number 21 AR 474, which was scheduled to depart at 11 a.m. But he never arrived home.

Later, his wife learned from a so-called village guard who had been traveling on the same bus that Nergiz had been taken off the vehicle by military personnel and taken to the gendarmerie for identity verification. He has been missing ever since.

Investigations have been unsuccessful

On October 7, 1997, Şahibe Nergiz filed a complaint with the Diyarbakır public prosecutor's office. However, the police and gendarmerie in Kulp denied having arrested Nergiz again. An official investigation was launched and a search warrant was issued, but to no avail. "The family has been waiting in vain for an answer for 28 years," Ersoy said.

The case of Yusuf Nergiz is representative of the many disappeared persons whose fate has never been clarified. As in many other cases, the Saturday Mothers see this as a systematic failure of the rule of law. "The policy of silence and impunity continues to prevent justice to this day," stated Ersoy.

The initiative announced that it would continue its protest: "We will not remain silent. The state is obliged to act in accordance with the principles of the rule of law - even decades later."