Amnesty International has initiated a campaign demanding that İstanbul’s Galatasaray Square be fully reopened to peaceful protests, highlighting the enduring struggle of the Saturday Mothers. This group has gathered weekly in the square for three decades to seek truth and justice for forcibly disappeared relatives, yet the square remains largely closed to protests due to state restrictions and police action.
The campaign, launched on social media under the banner “Galatasaray Square must be opened to protests,” calls on supporters to sign a petition urging authorities to end legal and physical barriers to peaceful assembly at the site. The Saturday Mothers have faced repeated police violence, detentions and prosecution despite the right to peaceful protest being upheld by Turkey’s Constitutional Court at least twice in recent years.
On 14 March 2025, 45 individuals, including relatives of forcibly disappeared persons, who had been prosecuted for “participating in an illegal demonstration” at Galatasaray Square, were acquitted. This followed rulings by the Constitutional Court in 2022 and 2023 recognising violations of their rights to peaceful assembly. Nonetheless, police repression of the protests has continued intermittently.
The Saturday Mothers have protested almost continuously since May 1995, demanding accountability for disappearances during the 1980s and 1990s in Turkey. Their weekly vigils at Galatasaray Square were halted in March 1999 due to police pressure but resumed in January 2009 after a decade-long pause.
Despite rulings affirming their rights, the group has frequently been subjected to police dispersal tactics such as tear gas, water cannon and detentions. At the 700th weekly protest in August 2018 for example, riot police forcibly dispersed hundreds of demonstrators citing a local ban, and detained and charged dozens whose prosecutions were later overturned.
In November 2023, Turkey’s Interior Minister acknowledged the group’s grievances in parliament, promising a swift resolution. Since then, limited protests near (but not in)the square, involving the relatives of missing persons, have been permitted without arrests taking place.
The Saturday Mothers marked 30 years of action in May 2025, their efforts emblematic of wider struggles for human rights and freedom of assembly in Turkey. Amnesty International’s campaign highlights the ongoing need for the authorities to respect these rights and allow Galatasaray Square to serve as a genuine public space for peaceful protest.
