Turkey tightens the siege on the LGBTI community with dozens of detainees

BarcelonaThe Turkish government has launched a large-scale police operation in recent days against bars, organizations, and homes of LGBTI community activists in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Mersin, and other cities, in one of the worst episodes of the offensive it has maintained against the collective for more than a decade. There are at least 63 detainees and a total of 162 under investigation, in addition to nine associations and thirteen businesses, according to the prosecutor's office. The websites of several entities have also been blocked, including those dedicated to raising awareness about HIV. Protests against the violation of rights and discrimination have also been repressed.

Minister of Justice Akin Gurlek has justified the wave of raids, ostensibly to "protect children, the institution of the family, and public order." Gurlek has stated that the operation, named "My family is safe," is part of Recep Tayyip Erdogan's presidential decree on the "Decade of Family and Population," which aims to defend the traditional family and combat the decline in birth rates in Turkey. The minister went so far as to state that "no criminal organization, network of abuse, or illegal activity that targets children, young people, or families will be tolerated." The entities are accused of corrupting minors, prostitution, or publishing obscene content.

Umut Rojda Yıldırım, a lawyer for SPoD, an association that watches over the rights of the LGBTI community in Turkey, explains to ARA that after a decade of repression of the collective, this weekend's operation represents a qualitative leap. "Since 2015, we have not been able to hold demonstrations on the street, but what happened this Sunday is new: because they went looking for people in their homes and at the headquarters of the organizations, and because the accusations try to present us as dangerous criminals." The lawyer denounces that the government "is investing many resources to present non-heteronormative people as a threat to family values, corrupting children, or a social danger." Rojda warns that fear has set in among the collective: "we were preparing for an anti-LGBTI law to be adopted, but not for such harsh and sudden repression, which in fact violates the Turkish Constitution".

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) banned the Istanbul Pride march in 2015. Since then, the authorities have violently dispersed attempts to hold new gatherings. The anti-LGBTI operation comes amid speculation in Turkey regarding the calling of early elections this year, which would allow Erdogan to run for a fourth term, which the Constitution prevents him from doing in the event of calling ordinary elections.

Mobilizing the conservative vote

For the Turkish journalist Alparsan Aydın, it points out that the offensive against the LGBTI community "responds to a political strategy: criminalizing a community for the mere fact of existing, presenting its simple visibility as an "obscenity" and with a systematic repression that seeks to manufacture a moral panic". He sees a double mechanism: "consolidating the conservative electoral base of the ruling party to divert attention from the economic crisis and at the same time stifle dissent". And he recalls that the organizations, which were "legally registered and regularly audited by the Ministry of the Interior" are accused of corruption "for having used the same European and UN funds that pro-government foundations receive". The whole operation, according to Aydın, is about "turning a marginalized group into a scapegoat for Erdogan's electoral survival, in a politically hostile climate, in the name of protecting the family, while truly harmful practices such as forced conversion therapies are tolerated".

Human rights defense organizations accuse the Turkish government of having hardened both the rhetoric and the restrictions against the country's LGTBIQ+ community in recent years. "The real name of this operation is not 'My family is safe'; it is state-driven discrimination, politics of fear and dismantling of civil society", the Human Rights Association of Turkey has denounced on X. The local branch of Amnesty International has demanded the release of all those detained: "Defending human rights and LGBTI+ rights is not a crime. The colleagues with whom we fight for rights should be released immediately and unconditionally; an end must be put to all pressures, pointing out and interventions aimed at hindering the freedom of organization of LGBTI+ people and their activities".

The European Parliament rapporteur for Turkey, Nacho Sánchez Amor, links the police operation to the "profound authoritarian deterioration of Turkey" and believes that the government is also trying to divert attention from the judicial process against Ekrem Imamoglu, the former mayor of Istanbul and Erdogan's main political rival imprisoned since 2019. "Most of the witnesses who had made accusations under pressure are backing down in the trial and this is a failure for the prosecution," he tells this newspaper. Sánchez Amor recalls that secularism is a foundational value of the Turkish republic and denounces "the hypocrisy of accusing the LGBTI community of corrupting minors in a country where the marriage of girls is still tolerated." And he warns that "the silence of the EU is shocking and gives a margin that Erdogan will use to the fullest."