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Cemil Kırbayır, a left-wing activist, was detained in September 1980 in Kars province and allegedly tortured to death in October 1980. The Kırbayır case remained un-prosecuted for decades. Berfo Kırbayır was an activist mother and had been searching for her missing son, Cemil Kırbayır. She symbolized the search for justice for relatives of the disappeared and is the symbol of the ‘Saturday Mothers’, who gather every Saturday demanding information about their disappeared relatives.
In February 2011, the General Attorney’s Office in Kars province launched an investigation that has yet to turn into a judicial prosecution. However, no progress has been made in the court since then. There is a risk of the statute of limitations in the Cemil Kırbayır case. The Kırbayır family and the Human Rights Association have called for solidarity to prevent the case from being closed.
Saturday Mothers’ protesters and the Human Rights Association have demanded that a criminal case must be opened.
Berfo Kırbayır died in 2013. She was 105 years old when she died and still searching for her son’s body. She dedicated her life to his search. She even attended the 1980 Coup Case trial in 2012. There, she condemned the retired generals who organized the military coup.
‘Saturday Mothers’ is a group that protests against forced disappearances and political murders in Turkey since the military coup in 1980 and the state of the emergency era of the 1990’s.
