Women are frequently the earliest and most active campaigners against wars and repressive regimes. The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, and the Women in Black in Jerusalem and Belgrade, are among the best known groups. A less-well known group is the Saturday Mothers in Istanbul, who gather every week to protest at the disappearance, and presumed murder by the Turkish state, of their relatives. A delegation of British women visited Istanbul in January to show solidarity with the Saturday Mothers, who face constant harassment from the Turkish authorities. JAMES KAFKA reports. MEMBERS of the delegation, organised by the International Committee Against Disappearances, gave moving accounts on their return of discussions with mothers and wives of the disappeared. The protest, in which the women place flowers in Istanbul's Galatsaray Square, was prevented by police - about 300 armed police surrounded two mothers of disappeared people, eight supporters, and five British women.
On previous occasions, women have been arrested; over 400 have been arrested since the protest was declared illegal last August. On one occasion, the women were held on a bus, which was then filled with tear gas. This repression may have deterred some women from joining the protest, but it has strengthened the resolve of those who continue, week after week, to demand the return of their loved ones, or of their bodies. In the course of Turkey's war against the Kurdish people and Turkish socialists and human rights activists, some 2000 people have "disappeared" since 1993. The government and military have denied any involvement. But their responsibility is proved by the evidence of one of the few to survive, revolutionary activist Ayhan Uzala, who was held from 29 November to 18 December 1995, beaten, threatened with execution, and interrogated about the Communist Party of Turkey (Marxist-Leninist). Ayhan's speech to the second international conference against disappearances is published in Disappearances: Never Again, published by the ICAD.
Harassment
The war against the Kurds has spread inexorably westward, and hundreds of Turkish human rights activists have been harassed. including Turkey's leading novelist Yasar Kemal. Leading sociologist Dr Ismail Besicki and Kurdish MP Leyla Zana have received long political sentences for legal professional activity. Hundreds of members of the legal political party Hadep have been arrested, and several newspapers have been closed.
The army, which claims that it is protecting Turkey's secular constitution against a threat of "Islamic fundamentalism", has intervened in the country's nominally democratic processes, insisting that they will prevent an Islamic party from forming the government should they win the forthcoming general election. Indeed, the Islamic Welfare Party, which won the largest number of votes in the December 1995 election, was subsequently banned. Turkey is a key element in the Anglo-American system of control in the Middle East. Its recent military pact with Israel ensures that Iraq, Syria and Iran face the possibility of a concerted attack from two directions.
Although human rights violations may be used as a means to exclude Turkey from the EU, the British government continues to prop up the Turkish regime.
Despite the Labour party's much-vaunted "ethical foreign policy", British Aerospace and British Leyland still arm the Turkish military, while British police help train the Turkish police. Meanwhile Kurdish and Turkish asylum seekers face continued harassment in Britain.
The labour movement must act in support of those facing Turkish repression.
Self-determination for the Kurdish people! Freedom of political activity in Turkey! Stop the harassment and imprisonment of asylum speakers! No arms sales or military support for Turkey!
• ICAD (British Section), PO Box 8446, London N17