By Corinna Billmaier
The freedom for the LGBTQ+ community (meaning lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual/gender identities, other terms used are LGBT or LGBTI+) in Turkey to express their identity has never been without opponents and struggles. Reports of harassment and violence against LGBTQ+ people are widespread, and activists have been fighting for years to achieve equal rights and protection from hate crimes. In 1951 Turkey signed the Geneva Convention, which gives LGBTQ+ people the right of asylum if they are threatened in their country of origin, and used to be seen as a safe haven for many people from the Arab world, either as a place of transit to Europe or North America, or as a permanent residence. However, in recent years the rights and the safety of LGBTQ+ people in Turkey itself are increasingly under threat.
The attitude of the Turkish government and society has always been ambivalent towards the freedom of expressing gender identities. In 2008, Human Rights Watch published a report stating that “Every transgender person and many of the gay men Human Rights Watch spoke to report having been a victim of a violent crime – sometimes multiple crimes – based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
However, the fight for recognition for the LGBTQ+ community was eventually partly successful and resulted in the celebration of the Pride March in Istanbul since 2003. In subsequent years, Pride Marches in several Turkish cities were held, and hope rose to see this as the beginning of a more tolerant society. Up to 100.000 people were present at the 2014 parade, showing that a large part of the city’s population identifies with or feels solidarity towards the LGBTQ+ community. Sadly, the visibility of the LGBTQ+ community on the streets did not lead to a more open-minded society in general, and instead, “violence and systematic harassment and discrimination by the state authorities against members of the LGBT community in Turkey” continued, as reported by Amnesty International in 2011. Rainbow flags did not help against the lack of laws protecting people from discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, and instead were increasingly seen as a nuisance for public safety.
Homophobic statements by government officials continue to create a hostile environment for LGBTQ+ people and activists. According to the aforementioned Amnesty International report from 2011, the Minister of State responsible for Women and Family Affairs, Aliye Kavaf, said that “homosexuality is a biological disorder and should be treated”. As the report further shows, her homophobic statement is not an isolated incident, but rather a common rhetoric by state representatives.
Since 2015 this homophobic rhetoric has gotten stronger and activism gets increasingly silenced by force and by law. In 2020, President Erdogan accused trans- and homosexuals having “paedophilic dreams cloaked as modernity” and called them “abnormal”. From 2015 onwards, Pride Marches all over the country were banned, under the pretense of “public safety”, “safeguarding general health and morals” and “safeguarding the rights and freedoms of others”. Once again, the LGBTQ+ community was portrayed as dangerous to the morals of the society and their freedom of expression was denied. This goes against the fact that for a decade Pride Marches have been held without any incidents and on the contrary – the LGBTQ+ community was the ones suffering from violent verbal and physical attacks. The ban of the Istanbul Pride March was announced last minute but protesters showed up regardless of that. As a consequence, the police fired water cannons and rubber bullets at them. Since then, year after year activists have defied the ban and went on to protest for the LGBTQ+ community’s rights nevertheless, only to be dispersed by police force.
All this does not stop activists from continuing their struggle against a growing homophobic climate and for the recognition of expressing their identity and seeing their basic human rights protected. One of the events organized by LGBTQ+ rights defenders was the Pride March on the campus of Ankara University in 2019. It was banned by the university, but activists assembled nonetheless in defiance of this violation of their freedom of expression. Eventually, the peaceful protest was met with police brutality, including pepper spray, plastic bullets and tear gas and 23 students and a professor were arrested on charges of “unlawful assembly”. The two students who organized the protests, Melike and Özgür are among 18 students and the professor who are awaiting trial and, if found guilty, could be sentenced to three years in prison.
The Amnesty International Write for Rights campaign 2020 demands acquittal of charges for these students who were raising their voices for defending the LGBTQ+ community. Their case is an example for the growing infringement of the freedom of expression by LGBTQ+ activists in Turkey and the attempt by the government to silence the movement.
Özgür Gür said to Amnesty International:
“We should first understand that the LGBTI+ movement does not just belong to the LGBTI+ people. It’s an equal rights movement. So, everyone has to support this movement to become equal. LGBTI+ people do not live in Space, we live in your neighbourhood, we go to the same schools and hospitals. People should realise that LGBTI+ people are everywhere and should be aware about the language they use, their behaviour towards LGBTI+ people and they should not discriminate. Most importantly people should be with LGBTI+ people so that they do not feel lonely.”
To take action and show support with these students, you can sign a letter (in Dutch or English) to the Turkish Minister of Justice, demanding that the 18 students and the professor on trial must be acquitted and “ensure a prompt, independent and impartial investigation into the excessive use of force by the police on campus and police officers found to have acted unlawfully are brought to justice.” To show solidarity to Özgür, Meline and the other students you can also send them a card and let them know they are not alone with their struggle.
For more information on the Write for Rights campaign and all accompanying events follow AISU's Write for Rights Committee on Instagram: write4rights_utrecht
Sources:
https://www.politico.eu/article/turkey-lgbtq-community-risk-rise-in-homophobic-rhetoric/ https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/05/21/we-need-law-liberation/gender-sexuality-and-human-rights-changing-turkey https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/EUR44/001/2011/en/ https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/07/08/turkey-president-recep-erdogan-lgbt-gay-red-crescent-kerem-kinik/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/04/lgbti-activists-in-turkey-defending-human-rights-in-a-climate-of-fear/ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/lgbt-pride-turkey-march-ban-tear-gas-istanbul-police-a8981751.html https://www.ilga-europe.org/resources/news/media-releases/istanbul-pride-2015 https://www.amnesty.nl/forms/write-for-rights-Balkan-Gur https://www.amnesty.org/en/get-involved/take-action/w4r-2020-turkey-metu-pride-defenders/
https://www.amnesty.nl/write-for-rights/groetenkaarten
Images:
https://act.amnestyusa.org/page/67952/action/1?locale=en-US