Pro-LGBTQ+ protestors were tear-gassed, detained, and arrested in Turkey this week as they demonstrated against the government’s recent raids. Last weekend, raids picked up activists, journalists, and attendees at LGBTQ+ spaces, all under the propaganda of “keeping families safe.”
“This is the widest crackdown on LGBTQ+ people in recent years,” said Human Rights Watch’s associate director and Turkey director, Emma Sinclair-Webb, The Guardian reports. Sinclair-Webb went on to accuse the authorities of attempting to smear and criminalize LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, suggesting that numbers identified as part of the original raids may have included detainees who were “not associated with LGBTQ+ groups [but detained] for drug and prostitution offenses.”
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Last weekend saw the Turkish government enact raids that arrested at least 47 people across 12 provinces. The raids targeted LGBTQ+ bars, the homes of activists, and offices for advocacy associations. While the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office claimed to have seized drugs, smuggled alcohol, a firearm, and digital equipment, they also blocked many websites and social media accounts from LGBTQ+ organizations and rights activists.
Reuters reports that an official release from the Justice Ministry on Monday instructed prosecutors to “assess reports of obscene and criminal activities targeting children and young people, immediately secure digital evidence, and, where necessary, seek access blocks on online content.”
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The Turkish Human Rights Association posted on X to condemn the raids this week, and their social media accounts have now disappeared from the internet.
After protests in Ankara and Istanbul earlier this week, Reuters reports that at least 31 people have been arrested and are pending trial. Another 126 people have been detained without charges so far. Among those arrested were five trans women who had been protesting in Ankara.
In addition to breaking up the protests as they began to gather, police prevented a person from giving the press a statement outside a courthouse in Istanbul.
One of those arrested in the original raids was journalist Tuğba Tekerek, who was charged with “being the administrator of the Kaos GL Instagram account.” Kaos GL, established in 1994, is the Kaos Gay and Lesbian Cultural Research and Solidarity Association and is one of the main LGBTQ+ rights organizations in Turkey.
In a letter from a judicial ward (translated from Turkish), Tekerek highlighted the spurious nature of these claims. “I went to Georgia in 2024 with an international group of journalists to cover the elections there. We held numerous meetings with representatives of political parties, media, and NGOs. As a freelance journalist, I reported on these meetings in various media outlets. One of these was the KaosGL news website. After my report was published on the website by the editors, it was also announced on the KaosGL Instagram account as ‘Tuğba Tekerek’s report’ because it was an exclusive story. My ‘connection’ to the KaosGL Instagram account is limited to this.”
Homosexuality is not illegal in Turkey, and instead the government claims its raids are targeting violations of obscenity laws and the laws governing NGOs. However, it remains unclear what charges have actually been filed.
The government named the operation “My Family Is Safe.” In a statement, Turkey’s justice minister, Akın Gürlek, claimed that “My Family Is Safe” was intended to “protect our children, the institution of the family, and the social order.” This represents an extreme version of the strategy seen in the US and other countries where anti-LGBTQ+ forces claim that LGBTQ+ people’s mere existence is harmful to kids, whether that be from education about LGBTQ+ identities in schools or trans people’s participation in team sports.
Gürlek went on to claim that the venues they targeted were associated with prostitution, distribution of obscene material “and activities exposing children to such content.”
The Media and Law Studies Association, a Turkish group pushing for freedom of the press, reported that seven members of Kaos GL’s board were arrested.
Sinclair-Webb said: “Obviously, protecting children and the family is important – no one is debating that – but in a country with a large and concerning record of domestic violence, many cases of child abuse and murders of women, the protection of the family cannot be focused on LGBT people.”
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