Activists have been detained and offices searched in a nationwide operation condemned by human rights groups as an attack on LGBTQ+ organizations and freedom of association.
Turkish security forces carried out a wave of raids in recent hours against organizations and activists defending LGBTQ+ rights, as part of a police operation named “My Family Is Safe.” According to Justice Minister Akin Gurlek, the raids were coordinated between the police and the gendarmerie and targeted nine organizations, thirteen companies and 162 suspects across 15 provinces. The government has defended the operation as part of its effort to “protect children, the family institution and social order,” and says it seized narcotics and digital material during the raids.
Authorities have linked the investigated organizations to prostitution, the production and distribution of obscene content, and exposing minors to such material, while also searching gay bars and men’s public restrooms in Istanbul. Same-sex relationships are not criminalized in Turkey, though President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has publicly referred to gay people as “perverts.” The Turkish organization Kaos GL has confirmed that several members of its board and audit office were detained and its offices searched, while more than ten activists were arrested at their homes.
A broad coalition of human rights groups, including Amnesty International, has denounced the raids as “a large-scale operation against LGBTQ+ organizations and human rights defenders,” calling it “unacceptable” to criminalize legal activities by associating them with pimping, obscenity or drug trafficking. The coalition argues the real aim is to discredit Turkey’s LGBTQ+ movement and restrict its right to association, and has demanded the “immediate and unconditional” release of the detained activists.