Sweeping raids leave Turkey’s LGBTQI+ community fearing what comes next

Turkey has jailed dozens of people pending trial as a sweeping crackdown on LGBTQI+ groups widens, prompting international condemnation and protests outside Turkish embassies on Friday. By Thursday, courts in several provinces had jailed at least 82 people following raids on LGBTQI+ organisations, clubs, cafes and homes. The cases include LGBTQI+ activists and members of rights groups as well as people accused of prostitution, drug offences and other crimes. Not everyone jailed is accused of gay rights advocacy.The United Nations human rights office has called on Turkey to uphold human rights without discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity and to immediately release anyone arbitrarily detained. Protests were held outside Turkish embassies in cities including Paris, Brussels, London, Oslo and Washington on Friday. The crackdown began on Saturday, when police carried out coordinated raids targeting nine LGBTQI+ organisations. Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said legal action was being taken against 162 people, nine associations and 13 businesses in 15 provinces. Turkey arrests dozens in ongoing crackdown on LGBTQI+ groups Mass detentions The raids prompted protests across Turkey, including outside Istanbul’s main courthouse on Tuesday. Police broke up the demonstration and detained more than 100 people, including journalists. They were later released. “I am here because I want to say that LGBTQ+ friends are not alone in this country,” said Ayse, a protester who asked to be identified only by her first name. “I want to support them and to stay in solidarity with them, which is not easy these days in Turkey, but they are not alone, and we are not alone, and we will be here until the end.” Opposition DEM Party parliamentarian Ozgul Saki remained at the protest, protected from arrest by parliamentary immunity. “This oppression against LGBTQ+ people is an attempt to compress society into a single type; to build an Islamist, Turkish, racist society,” Saki said. “Those who are here say, 'No! Society will live equally, freely and honourably with all its diversity,' and that's why they were all detained.” The operations have been defended by Gurlek, from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP). “No criminal organisation, abuse network or illegal activity which targets children, youths or families will be tolerated,” Gurlek posted on social media. Among the organisations affected was Istanbul-based SPoD, which provides psychological support to LGBTQI+ people. “As a community, we were expecting that such an operation would come one day. But we didn't imagine it as that violent, that much unlawful,” said a SPoD representative who asked to remain anonymous. “They raided our office; I think four or five have been detained, and they are still in custody. What will happen to the LGBTQ+ community after this day? Like they can implement a kind of informal criminalisation upon our community, so my personal feeling is an immense feeling of uncertainty.” Surge in anti-LGBTQ disinformation targets Pride in Europe Obscenity allegations Homosexuality has been legal since the foundation of the Turkish republic in 1923, but authorities are using an obscenity law as part of the crackdown. “All of our board members are detained due to the allegations of obscenity,” said Yildiz Tar of Ankara-based KAOS GL, Turkey’s leading LGBTQI+ news portal. “They look into our social media account, and our news articles are seen as obscene because, for example, there is one picture of two women kissing, and they see that it's obscene. So that is why they have been detained.” The measures resemble actions taken against LGBTQI+ communities in Russia and Egypt, Tar said. “It's very similar to Russia and Egypt, like the things they want to do is very similar to anti-gay propaganda laws, and there were huge operations, and people got detained,” Tar said. “So it's very similar to both countries. And actually, like the Turkish government is very fond of Putin's way of dealing things.” The crackdown has also drawn condemnation from the European Union and international human rights groups. “It's an attempt to show LGBTQ+ people as immoral and against the family. But in fact, none of this does anything to protect the family at all,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, who leads Human Rights Watch’s Turkey office. “It's all about discrediting and stigmatizing people for their sexual orientation or gender identity.” Turkey marks a decade since the coup that never was, but never really ended Wider crackdown The arrests form part of a broader crackdown on people regarded as opposing the government, Sinclair-Webb said. “This operation should be set in the context of a very wide crackdown on anybody who is regarded as oppositional to the government, whether in terms of being politically or in terms of their lifestyle or their outlook… there is a general attempt by the government to impose as well as, you know, ideological conformity on people, lifestyle,” Sinclair-Webb said. President Erdogan routinely refers to LGBTQI+ people as perverts and has stepped up his rhetoric ahead of much-rumoured early elections. Gurlek has called on prosecutors to increase investigations into the LGBTQI+ community, fuelling fears of further arrests. The crackdown has also prompted condemnation across Turkish civil society, with trade unions, doctors’ associations and opposition parties voicing their opposition. For Tar, that support offers some hope amid fears over what could follow for Turkey’s LGBTQI+ community. “If this attack won't be stopped, it would mean a lot of maltreatment and torture; it can also cause hate crimes; it incites hatred inside the country too,” Tar said. “And it will mean that you cannot be openly queer; if they succeed in their operation, that is a really, really hellish scenario.”