Turkey's Pride struggling to survive amid LGBTQ+ crackdown
rfi.frIstanbul Pride Committee."We don't have any location where we can talk about Muslim feminist LGBTQ+ people. We don't have any place to talk about immigrant LGBTQ+ people.
We don't have any place we can talk about our civil rights."The other side is being able to show people that we are not a small number of people."#pridecantbedetained #pridecantbedeported #freeistanbulpride #solidaritywithistanbulpride pic.twitter.com/6adDeHYZl9Relations between people of the same sex have been allowed – or at least not criminalised – in Turkey since the establishment of the secular republic in 1923.But in recent years, the authorities have been cracking down on Pride week.This year is no different.
The centre of Istanbul was locked down after the local governor ruled that a planned parade by LGBTQ+ members was a terror threat.Despite massive security, participants attempted to go ahead with their Pride march, which resulted in over a hundred arrests and heavily armed riot police chasing people through the streets.Last month Erdogan used his victory speech to ramp up his anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.
He accused the community of posing an unacceptable threat to family values.Oner Ceylan of Lambda, an Istanbul-based LGBTQ+ group, says Erdogan sees their movement as a political threat."The political spaces in Turkey have been immensely narrowing more and more.
