Human rights groups are calling for international action after hundreds of LGBTQ+ people, supporters and protesters were arrested in a nationwide campaign.
Several human rights organisations denounced a nationwide arrest campaign targeting LGBTQ+ people and their supporters in Turkey and called on the European Union to freeze the country’s accession process. According to the organisations, 241 people have been arrested since the previous weekend and at least 82 remain in pre-trial detention. The raids have mainly targeted transgender women, who have been accused of what the groups consider arbitrary offences involving prostitution, drugs and public morality.
The campaign also spread to solidarity gatherings held in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir, where another 125 protesters were arrested. The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) also reported targeted censorship on social media affecting journalists and activists. FIDH and the Human Rights Association of Turkey (IHD) linked these actions to a campaign called “Ailem Güvend” (“My family is safe”) and denounced what they described as an erosion of fundamental freedoms.
The NGOs called for the prosecutions to be dropped and urged the EU, the Council of Europe and the United Nations to condemn what they consider discriminatory raids and arrests. FIDH called for Turkey’s EU accession process to be suspended indefinitely and for pre-accession funding to be stopped. The organisations also criticised Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government for using laws concerning child protection and public morality against the LGBTQ+ community.