LGBT Pride March in Istanbul: Turkish police arrested at least 200 protesters

The pride parade LGBT could not take place normally this Sunday in Istanbul due to police intervention, which blocked several streets Y arrested 200 protesters. After a spectacular parade of over 100,000 people in 2014 in that city, one of the most important in Turkey, the country’s authorities ban the event year after year, officially for security reasons.

As reported, the riot police personnel conducted a raid in various bars in the Cihangir district around Taksim square, even before the start of the date. In this regard, it was noted that arrested “at random” to people in the area, including lesbian, gay, trans, bisexual, queer and other journalists and activists.

Amnesty International called on Twitter for the “immediate and unconditional release” of the detainees and, as has been learned, in the late afternoon these people began to be released.

Despite the city governor’s ban, hundreds of rainbow-flag protesters began to gather in the streets adjacent to the famous Taksim Square, which is completely closed to the public.

Singing “The future is ‘queer'”, “You will never be alone” or “Here we are, we are ‘queer’, we will not go anywhere”, the protesters paraded for just over an hour through the streets of the Cihangir district, where many neighbors gave signs of support from balconies and windows, for example, rattling pots.

“They try to ban usprevent our presence, discriminate against and even kill us every minute of our existence, “said Diren, a 22-year-old queers’ protester,” a term that designates any form of altersexuality and that rejects the biological definition of gender.

Those arrested were transferred in two police buses to the city’s main police station. Among them was an AFP photographer, Bülent Kilic, who was handcuffed from behind.. In addition, his shirt was ripped off and he was taken with other inmates in a police van. He had already been arrested last year under the same circumstances. According to witnesses, the police tried to stop the press from filming the arrests.

Complaints after the arrest of LGBT protesters

One of the representatives of the NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Erol Onderonglu, wrote on Twitter that “despite three sentences handed down by the Constitutional Court in the last three years, the police continue with the violence and arbitrary detention of journalists. Unfortunately, the administration has become accustomed to not taking into account the judgments of the Court or the law “.

For his part, on Friday, the European Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, had urged “the Istanbul authorities to revoke the ban in force against the Pride Parade and ensure the safety of peaceful demonstrators “.

“The human rights of LGBT people in Turkey must be protected”, he stressed and asked to “put an end to his stigma”.

Homosexuality has been decriminalized in Turkey since the mid 19th century, but it continues to be frowned upon by society and the ruling party, the AKP (Islamo-conservative), to which the government of Recept Tayyip Erdogan belongs. A minister went so far as to label LGBT people as “degenerate”.

In 2020, the Netflix platform was forced to give up producing a series in that country because it included a gay character and had not obtained permission from the authorities.

Turkey was previously one of the few Muslim-majority countries to allow gay pride parades. The first was in 2003, the year after Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party came to power.

In recent years, the government has repressed public events that are inconsistent with its conservative ideology. Police often crack down on gay pride events with tear gas or shot.

The activists, who consider the ban illegal, have also been threatened by counter-demonstrations by people claiming to be defenders of “Turkish values”.

With information from AFP, AP and Télam.

IS