Design by Yosef Phelan

The Turkish government recently mounted a coordinated campaign of oppression against the LGBTQIA+ community in the country.

Hundreds of arrests have been made, queer spaces raided and social media accounts restricted or blocked. But why is this attack happening now? Here, we explain the situation currently facing LGBTQIA+ people in Turkey.

The recent crackdown

Between 12–14 September, more than one hundred people were arrested, and dozens were placed in pre-trial detention across 15 provinces in Turkey, following raids on homes, venues and offices of LGBTQIA+ rights organisations. This included HIV awareness groups and journalists – by all accounts, a coordinated attack on Turkey’s LGBTQIA+ civil society.

A court ordered the detention of leadership figures from the leading LGBTQIA+ rights organisation Kaos GL, as well as journalist Tuğba Tekerek, who was detained because of a 2024 article she wrote about LGBTQIA+ rights in Georgia.

Hundreds of social media accounts belonging to organisations, activists and journalists have also been restricted. This included Amnesty International’s Turkey X (formerly Twitter) account and the accounts of many prominent activist groups.

Benjamin Ward, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said: “This crackdown is a blatant attempt to criminalise and marginalise LGBT people and silence the groups that stand up for their rights. The Turkish government should immediately release LGBT activists and others arrested without credible evidence of criminal wrongdoing and end its campaign against LGBT groups.”

Following the initial crackdown, protesters who took to the streets in Istanbul and Izmir, in defiance of the crackdown, were teargassed and many were arrested.

At one protest outside Istanbul’s Çağlayan courthouse, a group who simply displayed a banner reading “Being LGBTQ+ is not a crime” were swiftly detained, according to AFP news agency.

Why is the government targeting LGBTQIA+ people?

The crackdown is part of the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s “My Family Is Safe” initiative, and the wider “Decade of the Family and Population” – arguing for a traditional family structure in response to declining birth rates and what he terms as the threat from a “perverse ideology”.