Right-to-Truth: An Alternative History of Istanbul’s Taksim

Recognized by international law, the right-to-truth is a concept of transitional justice that oversees the right of relatives and society to know the truth about state brutality and human right violations, which have been obscured due to the denial of violence and responsibility, and the distortion of facts in official national histories. Far from being a resolved process, the transitional justice is still an incomplete, continually contested ground, as the previous assumption of the “objectivity” and “universality” of international law is debated, and as the framework to reconcile the international and place-based justice systems remains undertheorized. This paper will focus on the story of a movement of individuals whose relatives have disappeared while under state custody and who have been denied a proper grief process. The “Saturday Mothers” in Turkey have been asking for the whereabouts of their relatives’ bones by protesting at Istanbul’s Galatasaray square every Saturday since 27 May 1995 (now banned). The paper will combine this story with the history of the urban boulevard that connects Galatasaray Square to Taksim-Gezi Park, to elaborate on the continuing relevance of urban spaces for civil rights movements. Given that part of this area had been built over the former cemeteries of Armenian and Greek Orthodox inhabitants since the early twentieth century, this case also calls for a discussion of the construction of cities over the bones of deceased discriminated individuals--literally and symbolically.