The Foolish Mothers of Turkey

In Turkey more than two-thousand people have been disappeared because of political ideas. Of more than 400 of them it is known that shortly before their disappearance they were kept prison by the government. A government who’s keeping silent, takes no action and denies everything. Most mothers of these missing persons are illiterate and derive from a lower social class. They never have had political ideas, they were never concerned with politics. One day they were confronted with the fact that their son or daughter would not come home any more.
From that point on they were forced to gain more in-depth knowledge of the political situation in Turkey. By now they know the names of political parties and they know where the parties stand for. They also know that politics in Turkey can’t be trusted. Attempts to be heard end in failure.

For years the mothers are looking for their children. They want to know where their children are, what happened to them, if they are dead or in prison and if they are dead, what has happened with the body. Their daily life is dominated by these questions. Their acquaintances don’t sympathize with them. They are avoided because their children are seen as terrorists, as communists and as traitors. It is a taboo to talk about these missing persons. Still the mothers will not be silent. Emine Ocak is one of these mothers.

The mothers, family and friends of missing persons gather every Saturday around twelve o’clock noon at the Galatasaray-square in the center of Istanbul, supported by intellectuals, writers, artists and members of the humanrightsorganisation IHD to demonstrate against the disappearance of their beloved ones.

In the documentary 'The Foolish Mothers of Turkey' Emine Ocak and her husband tell about the radicall changes to their lives caused by the disappearing of their son Hasan. Meanwhile the third anniversary of the “Saterdaymothers” is celebrated between a corridor of riot police. Two Plaza de Majo mothers from Argentina come over to support the Turkish mothers.

Trailer (Dutch):