News Center — There are individuals who carry not only their personal pain, but also the collective memory of an entire society. Emine Ocak was one of them. The story of her life was not merely that of a mother searching for her son, Hasan Ocak, who it became a defining symbol of the was forcibly disappeared after being taken into police custody fight for justice for the enforced disappeared in Turkey.

On May 27, 1995, Emine Ocak was among the first mothers to gather at Galatasaray Square. From that day onward, for nearly thirty years, she never let go of her son's photo. Every time she came to the square, she was not looking for Hasan alone, but for hundreds of people who had disappeared in custody. Through her silent sit-ins, she resisted denial, impunity, and the politics of forgetting.

On March 21, 1995, her son Hasan called her to say he was coming home. That phone call was the last conversation between the mother and her son. Emine Ocak spent days moving between police stations, prosecutors' offices, and hospitals, only to receive the exact same answer everywhere: "We don't have him." But she never believed them.

In a letter written years later, she described those days, saying: "I never lost hope of finding my son. After 58 days, my children found Hasan's photos in the forensic medicine records Hasan was not an unidentified person. He had a family. first anniversary but they buried him in a cemetery of the unidentified so that no one would see the marks of the torture he endured."

The Real Battle Begins

When it was revealed that Hasan Ocak was killed under torture, Emine Ocak's battle did not end; it truly began. After exhuming her son's body from the cemetery of the unidentified and laying him to rest, she decided to sit in Galatasaray Square so that no other mother would have to endure the same tragedy.

The silent sit-ins of the Saturday Mothers quickly became a symbol not only for the families of the missing, but also for the human rights movement as a whole. As Emine Ocak used to say, in Galatasaray Square they became "siblings, children, and friends." As the struggle expanded, cases of enforced disappearance declined, and the square turned into a symbol of memory and the demand for justice.

Yet, this struggle was filled with sacrifices. The sit-ins in the square were repeatedly banned, and the Saturday Mothers faced arrests and violence. Still, Emine Ocak never backed down, believing that surrendering meant abandoning not just Hasan, but all the families searching for justice.

In one of her letters, she wrote: "If we abandon our struggle, we will never reach our missing loved ones. If we give up, this country will remain a paradise for those who caused people to disappear. If we give up, justice will never be served."

Emine Ocak's struggle was not limited to demanding accountability for those responsible for her son's death; she dedicated her life to being the voice of truth, memory, and justice in the face of state violence. Over the years, the photograph of Hasan she held in Galatasaray Square became an emblem for everyone who was forcibly disappeared.

A Legacy of Resilience

In the final years of her life, following a heart attack, Emine Ocak received treatment in intensive care before passing away on July 23, 2025. One year after her death, it is worth noting that she left behind not only deep grief, but also an enduring legacy of resilience and resistance passed down to future generations.

Her greatest wish never changed. In a letter she wrote in 2019, she stated: "They are waiting for all of us to die so they won't be held accountable, but they will not escape justice. We will not step back until the last missing person is found and those responsible for their disappearance are punished. I promised my comrade Elmas that one day we would hold the photos of our children in Galatasaray, which is our square and the square of our missing ones."

The impact Emine Ocak left on Galatasaray Square will remain alive until the fate of the missing is revealed and justice is served. Her name will forever be etched in memory as one of the most prominent symbols of the struggle for truth and justice in Turkey.