Turkish authorities on Sept. 15 detained more than 150 people who gathered outside an Istanbul courthouse to protest raids that targeted the country’s LGBTQ community.
CNN reported the protesters had planned to speak with reporters outside the city’s Caglayan courthouse, but authorities prevented them from doing so.
Turkish authorities over the weekend detained dozens of people in Istanbul and in other cities during raids that were part of the government’s “My Family is Safe” campaign.
A statement from a group of Turkish advocacy groups the Washington Blade received notes “at least 112 people have been detained in connection with the operations.” The organizations said 43 of those taken into custody are “LGBTI+ rights defenders,” and “at least” 62 of those detained “have been arrested, while judicial proceedings remain ongoing in Istanbul.”
“Among those arrested, at least 16 are LGBTI+ activists or individuals connected to LGBTI+ associations, including founders and members of association bodies,” reads the statement. “Per press statements by the prosecutor’s offices, dissolution cases will also be launched against associations.”
“The majority of those arrested are trans women who are charged with prostitution-related offences,” it adds. “While authorities have framed the operations as part of investigations into alleged crimes such as obscenity, prostitution and child exploitation, human rights defenders and civil society organizations have raised serious concerns regarding the use of criminal law mechanisms and public morality narratives to target legitimate LGBTI+ rights activities. Civil society views the ‘My Family is Safe’ narrative as a smokescreen to distract the public from deep economic crises and actual domestic violence, weaponizing moral panic to scapegoat LGBTI+ rights defenders, who have long been targeted by the government.”
The raids have sparked outrage among LGBTQ activists in Europe and elsewhere around the world.
The Congressional Equality Caucus and U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-Fla.) are among those who have publicly condemned them in the U.S. The Council for Global Equality on Sept. 18 held a rally in support of Turkey’s LGBTQ community in front of the Turkish Embassy in Northwest D.C.
The National LGBT Media Association represents 13 legacy publications in major markets across the country with a collective readership of more than 400K in print and more than 1 million + online. Learn more here: NationalLGBTMediaAssociation.com.
Sign up for the Watermark Out News eNewsletter and follow us for more:
BlueSky | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | TikTok | Threads | YouTube
