News hour
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Mitra Nazar
correspondent Turkey
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Mitra Nazar
correspondent Turkey
Sunday, May 28. Turkish President Erdogan stands atop his presidential bus in Istanbul’s Uskudar district. It has just been announced that he has won the elections again. He gives his first victory speech above a cheering crowd. And it doesn’t take long before the term ‘LGBTI’ is used.
“Is the opposition pro-LGBTI?” he asks.
“Yes!” the crowd shouts.
“Let’s infiltrate LGBTI into our AKP?”
“No!” the crowd shouts.
“For us, the family is sacred!”
It has been known for some time that Erdogan does not care for the LGBTI community. He has previously called them ‘perverse’ and ‘enemies of the state’. But this time Erdogan made it a major election issue. During his campaign, he repeatedly called the opposition ‘LGBTI supporters’ and LGBTI people themselves ‘a poison injected into the family’. At an election rally he also said: “We are against LGBTI people, because a strong family makes a strong nation.”
LGBT rights have been under pressure in Turkey for years. Since 2015, Istanbul Pride has been banned, officially due to ‘public safety’. Anyone who does take to the streets will face police violence. This year too, Pride was severely suppressed, more than a hundred activists were arrested.
With Erdogan remaining president for another term, the queer community is more concerned than ever. “It was tough to see the election results because it was the last hope for people still fighting for freedom and human rights,” said queer activist Nazli, who identifies as non-binary. “A lot of hatred has been unleashed against us. That makes it even harder to be ourselves.”
Increasing hatred
Queer organizations fear that Erdogan’s statements will lead to more hatred and violence against LGBTI people. Reports of physical violence against queer people increase annually in Turkey. Last summer, for example, an angry crowd tried to enter an art exhibition in Istanbul. They accused the artist of LGBT propaganda and came to seek redress. The police were able to prevent them from entering.
In addition, the community fears that it will open the door to repressive anti-LGBTI laws. These concerns arise from Erdogan’s new coalition with two small, strict Islamist parties: Huda Par and Yeniden Refah. They advocate, among other things, separate education for boys and girls and allowing child marriage. If it were up to them, a law that tackles violence against women would also come to an end and they want a ban on LGBTI organizations.
Erdogan’s party AKP is now working on a constitutional amendment, which states that marriage is exclusively a union between a man and a woman. It only needs to be submitted to parliament, where his coalition has a majority. It is still unknown when that will happen.
Correspondent Mitra Nasar spoke to Turkish LGBTI people who are concerned about the developments:
‘We must fight for our rights more than ever’
Erdogan’s views are being heard by conservative and nationalist groups. They recently held anti-LGBTI protest marches throughout Turkey, under the name ‘Large Family Meeting’. In September, for example, a few thousand people gathered in a park in Istanbul.
Anti-LGBTI videos were on a large screen and there was even a video message from Aleksandar Dugin, the Russian far-right philosopher known as Putin’s “brain.” He says he is happy that his Turkish friends are organizing this event and thus combating the normalization of LGBTI people.
“On video platforms such as Netflix and Disney+, there is almost no series without gay characters. We now even see it in children’s books,” says Meltem Ayvali, of the organization. “This propaganda encourages our children to change their gender. We call on the government to ban LGBT propaganda and LGBT organizations.”
Don’t flee to Europe
Activist Nazli sees the consequences of the growing pressure on the LGBTI community. “Many people are trying to emigrate to Europe. There is not much hope left.”
Nazli himself thinks it is important to stay now. “If there are no more protests, if there are no more LGBTI people on the streets, it means we have given up. And we cannot give up.”
2023-12-17 19:14:21
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