Turkey arrests dozens in crackdown on LGBTQ+ activists
The arrests are an escalation in the Turkish government's campaign targeting LGBTQ+ community and activists.
Turkey arrests dozens in crackdown on LGBTQ+ activists
Turkish police have detained dozens of people amid the government’s latest crackdown on LGBTQ+ activists and venues.
The protesters were taken into custody on Tuesday as they assembled outside Istanbul’s main courthouse.
They were demanding the release of another group of LGBTQ+ activists who were arrested over the weekend during a series of raids on gay bars and the homes of activists.
The Turkish government has detained members of the LGBTQ+ community and activists as part of a campaign called "My Family is Safe", which it says is intended to defend family values.
At Tuesday’s demonstration, people shouted "Long live the struggle for freedom!" and urged that the detained activists be freed, news agency AFP reported. Police carried out several arrests after some demonstrators unfurled a banner saying "Being LGBTQ is not a crime".
"What we are seeing now is deeply disturbing," one protestor told AFP.
Rights groups have described the campaign as an expanding crackdown on the LGBTQ+ community. Over the past week, authorities have raided association offices, blocked websites and made arrests across multiple provinces.
The government has also blocked or limited access to the social media accounts and websites of dozens of LGBT, media and rights organisations, according to a post from the NGO Human Rights Watch.
Same-sex relations are not illegal in Turkey, but homophobia is widespread, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called LGBTQ people "perverts" who are to blame for the declining birth rate.
Michael O'Flaherty, the Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe, has expressed concern about the arrests.
"I am concerned by reports of a series arrests, raids and the blocking of websites and social media accounts targeting LGBTI civil society and human rights defenders across Turkey," he said.
O'Flaherty's statement said that Turkey's Minister of Justice had said the operation was being carried out against 162 individuals, nine associations and 13 businesses across 15 provinces under the coordination of several Chief Public Prosecutors' Offices.