Turkey: 162 targeted in anti-LGBTQ+ raids
Government of Turkey blocks LGBTQ+ websites and social media accounts
Turkish authorities have arrested dozens of people, with at least 162 targeted in judicial proceedings, during a weekend crackdown on the country’s LGBTQ+ community, DW reported.
Ankara says police raids on gay bars and other venues are aimed at protecting family values.
Reuters reported “at least 47 people” were arrested.
Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said investigations coordinated by prosecutors in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Aydin and Mersin involved judicial proceedings against 162 suspects, nine associations and 13 businesses across 15 provinces.
The Ankara-based LGBTQ+ rights group Kaos GL claimed that beyond arrests, the government had also cut access to dozens of websites and social media accounts belonging to associate groups and rights advocates.
Kaos GL said at least 50 activists had been detained, including more than 10 who were taken in police raids on their homes.
According to Turkish media reports, the Seventh Criminal Peace Court in Istanbul ordered the blocking of the “Kaos GL” website, which has been active for years in the field of LGBTQ rights in Turkey. Other websites in the order include: 17 May, ÜniKuir, Pink Life, SPoD, Genç LGBTİ+, Lambda Istanbul, and Muamma LGBTİ+
Rights groups say the government is unfairly targeting the LGBTQ+ community, with Kaos GL saying that it had been accused of making “posts containing obscenities” accessible to children.
The weekend police operation was dubbed “My Family is Safe” by the government and was part of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan‘s “Decade of Family and Population” scheme, which is designed to reverse plummeting birthrates in the aging country.
Authorities say it was intended to make sure that society does not see LGBTQ+ activity as “normal” and that raids were carried out to “protect children, the institution of the family, and our shared moral values.”
Although same-sex relations are not illegal in the country, homophobia is rife, with President Erdogan blaming LGBTQ “perverts” for Turkey’s rapidly declining birthrates.
That would seem a rhetorical diversion from the actual complexity of reasons for the decline, which Erdogan — who has ruled as the country’s authoritarian president since 2014 as well as serving as its influential prime minister for 10 years before that — has called “a disaster.”
Though Turkey‘s statistical agency, TurkStat, tracked a sharp decline in the total fertility rate between 2013 and 2023 (from 2.11 to 1.51 ), the shift brings birthrates in the country closer to those in other developed nations.
Observers say the real reasons for the drop are more likely of a structural and institutional nature rather than one chalked up to lifestyle.
The Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office said operations were carried out over the weekend across 12 provinces against 38 suspects, and 26 of them were detained with authorities seizing drugs, digital equipment, smuggled alcohol and a firearm.In a separate statement, the Ankara chief prosecutor’s office said a further 21 people had been detained as part of an investigation into the LGBTQ+ association Kaos GL and five people were still being sought.
