LGBTI Activists Arrested at Banned Pride Parade in Istanbul

More than 150 people have been arrested in Istanbul after taking to the streets to demand LGBT rights. Pride celebrations have been banned in the Turkish capital since 2014, officially for security reasons.

In 2014, another 100,000 people gathered in the Turkish capital Istanbul to celebrate pride and demand the rights of the LGBT community. However, the event was banned a year later. Officially for security reasons and to preserve public order. This ban was extended year after year. However, people take to the streets again every year to demand their rights. This led to clashes with the police each time and this year is no different.

A group of young activists gathered in the central district of Cihangir, carrying rainbow flags and protest banners. Riot police, who were en masse at the site, dispersed them shortly thereafter and sealed off the entire area. The echo of the streets echoed the voices of residents who checked their windows on pots and pans to protest the arrests. The footage shows young men and women being cornered, arrested, and taken into pickup trucks. According to the news agency France Press agency Four trucks loaded with detainees, among them France Press agencyBryce, photographer Bulent Kilic. He was also arrested last year. Pride meeting organizers are talking about a hundred arrests.


The police quickly dispersed the group of protesters.

Photo: AFP

In the Beyoglu district, which is home to many gay bars, pride parades have been banned for seven days. Turkey’s increasingly repressive attitude toward the LGBT community points to the more conservative path Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has begun to lead with his Justice and Development Party (AKP). Last year, Erdogan compared LGBT activists to vandals. His Home Secretary then tweeted that “four LGBT perverts” had been arrested for “spreading hate,” prompting him to receive an official warning from Twitter. The first pride in Turkey happened in 2003.

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Denton Watson

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