Turkey’s Expanding Crackdown on LGBTQ+ Communities

At least 150 people were detained in Istanbul after police broke up a pro-LGBTQ demonstration outside the Çağlayan courthouse. Protesters had gathered to demand the release of people detained during recent raids and were chanting as police surrounded them. Officers declared the demonstration unauthorized before taking participants away in police buses. Two journalists were among those detained. The protest followed nationwide operations conducted across Turkey on September 12 and 13 under the name “My Family Is Safe.” Feminist activist Feride Eralp said that 162 people had been taken into custody nationwide, with more than 20 arrested and over 30 detained in Istanbul. She also reported that six LGBTQ associations in the city had been raided. The government has linked the operations to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s “Decade of the Family and Population” initiative. Although same-sex relations are legal in Turkey, LGBTQ people have faced growing pressure from state authorities in recent years. The crackdown has prompted concern internationally, with the European Union expressing alarm over the arrests and urging Ankara to respect human rights. The events reflect heightened tensions between Turkey’s authorities and LGBTQ organizations and activists. The arrests, raids and restrictions on public demonstrations have intensified concerns about freedom of assembly, press freedom and the treatment of LGBTQ people in the country.

Turkish authorities conducted raids against LGBTQ+ activists and organizations in Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir over the weekend, arresting several people and blocking more than 100 websites and social media accounts associated with LGBTQ+ groups, activists, journalists, lawyers, academics, and women’s rights organizations. The crackdown was announced as part of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s “Decade of Family and Population” strategy, introduced in May 2025 to address Turkey’s declining birthrate and promote a traditional, conservative conception of the family. The operations prompted demonstrations in Istanbul and widespread criticism from LGBTQ+ associations, women’s rights organizations, medical professionals, trade associations, opposition politicians, and human rights groups. LGBTQ+ organizations argued that association-building and rights advocacy are not crimes and emphasized that constitutional protections, including freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, privacy, and the presumption of innocence, apply to LGBTQ+ people. Yildiz Taghizade of Women for Women’s Human Rights said the government’s broader objective was to prevent LGBTQ+ people from organizing, participating in politics, asserting their rights, and appearing in public life. She rejected the government’s claim that the raids were necessary to protect families and children, pointing instead to poverty, unemployment, the housing crisis, unpaid care work, and violence against women as major threats to families. The Turkish Medical Association called the raids a human rights violation, while Workers’ Party of Turkey leader Erkan Bas demanded the release of those arrested. Authorities justified the suspension of accounts by citing investigations into “obscene content and LGBTQ+ propaganda,” as well as national security concerns. Although same-sex relationships are not criminalized in Turkey, government officials have repeatedly used stigmatizing language about LGBTQ+ people and organizations. The European Union expressed concern, stating that discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation conflicts with European values. Human Rights Watch said the arrests demonstrated an effort to criminalize LGBTQ+ people without formally changing the law.

The article examines why authoritarian and increasingly far-right governments target LGBTQ+ communities, focusing on Turkey’s intensified crackdown. Turkish authorities raided gay bars and homes and arrested hundreds, while officials justified the actions as necessary to protect families and children. Political scientist Koen Slootmaeckers argues that such rhetoric is part of a broader “us versus them” narrative that promotes traditional family values and portrays LGBTQ+ people as threats to society. The article says that linking homosexuality with child abuse or pedophilia is a recurring tactic in authoritarian campaigns against LGBTQ+ rights. A 2026 Civicus report describes women’s and LGBTQI+ rights as facing their most coordinated and wide-ranging attack in decades, citing the United States under President Donald Trump and the criminalization of same-sex relationships in Burkina Faso and Trinidad and Tobago as examples of global regression. According to Slootmaeckers, these campaigns are often opportunistic rather than purely ideological. Governments may scapegoat LGBTQ+ people when political power is threatened, using them to distract from economic, political, or social crises. Hungary and Poland are cited as previous examples of this strategy. Serbia illustrates how rights can erode even without formally criminalizing homosexuality. The country has fallen in the European rankings of LGBTQ+ protections, while groups linked to President Aleksandar Vučić and his Serbian Progressive Party have been associated with violence and marginalization. Eighty percent of LGBTQ+ respondents in a recent European Union survey said they avoided holding hands with their partners in public. Although Serbia’s aspiration to join the EU imposes some limits, Vučić’s attempted cancellation of EuroPride 2022 demonstrated how LGBTQ+ rights can become a political tool. The article concludes that homophobia and transphobia are becoming normalized across Europe. In Turkey, rights group Kaos GL describes the crackdown as state-led discrimination, fear-based politics, and an assault on civil society, while LGBTQ+ people in other authoritarian countries remain at risk of similar repression.

Turkish authorities detained at least 150 people on Sept 15 after police intervened at a gathering outside Istanbul’s Caglayan courthouse. Demonstrators had intended to issue a press statement protesting recent arrests and raids targeting LGBTQ+ groups, but police prevented the statement and moved against the crowd as protesters chanted, “Long live life in defiance of hate.” The detentions are the latest development in what rights groups and opposition figures describe as an expanding government campaign against Turkey’s LGBTQ+ community. Over the previous week, authorities raided LGBTQ+ association offices, restricted access to websites and social-media accounts, and detained or jailed suspects in several provinces. The operation, called “My Family is Safe,” has been presented by the government as an effort to protect children and family values. Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty expressed concern about the arrests, raids and online restrictions. He said that references to family values or child protection could not, by themselves, justify restrictions on human rights and called for the release of people detained for civil-society or human-rights work. A Turkish court in Izmir jailed 16 people pending trial on Monday. Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said investigations coordinated by prosecutors in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Aydin and Mersin involved 162 suspects, nine associations and 13 businesses across 15 provinces. Authorities had also detained at least 26 people in Istanbul and 21 in Ankara during the weekend. Websites and social-media accounts belonging to LGBTQ+ groups, individuals and independent media outlets—including Amnesty International’s Turkey branch—were blocked.

The article reports a widening crackdown on LGBTQ+ people and organizations in Turkey. On Tuesday, Turkish police detained dozens of protesters gathered outside an Istanbul courthouse. The demonstrators were calling for the release of people arrested during a weekend operation targeting LGBTQ+ activists and spaces associated with them. According to Amnesty International, police conducted raids on Sunday at the offices and homes of several LGBTQ+ activists, as well as at locations frequented by members of the LGBTQ+ community. The operation resulted in at least 60 arrests. The article characterizes the action as a sweeping crackdown, suggesting that it extends beyond individual activists to organizations, community spaces, and online platforms. In addition to the arrests, social media pages and websites belonging to LGBTQ+ groups were blocked or restricted in Turkey. The reported restrictions indicate that authorities’ actions have affected both physical spaces and digital communications used by LGBTQ+ organizations. The latest detentions outside the courthouse show that the crackdown has prompted public protest, while also demonstrating that police action has continued beyond the initial weekend raids. The article does not provide further details about the legal grounds for the arrests, the identities of those detained, or statements from Turkish authorities. Its focus is on the expanding pattern of arrests, raids, protests, and online restrictions, as well as the concerns raised by Amnesty International about the treatment of LGBTQ+ activists and groups in Turkey.