50 Activists Detained, Websites Blocked: Turkey Launches Mass Purge of the LGBT+ Community

A large-scale wave of police raids, detentions, and shutdowns targeting activists, human rights associations, and LGBTQ+ community venues has swept across Turkey. Police and gendarmerie operations began simultaneously at 1:00 a.m. local time on September 13 and spanned 15 provinces across the country, including Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Aydın, and Mersin. In Istanbul, law enforcement officers searched a gay bar, a nightclub, and a men's hammam, and also raided activists' private homes.

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office announced special operations targeting 38 suspects in 12 provinces and confirmed that 26 people had been detained. However, the Ankara-based human rights association Kaos GL reports that the crackdown is significantly broader in scope: according to the association, authorities have detained at least 50 activists, with more than 10 of them taken into custody directly from their homes. Overall, the Turkish authorities have launched legal proceedings against 162 suspects, 9 associations, and 13 businesses.

Police raids targeted the offices of six LGBTQ+ organizations. The prosecutor's office stated that searches of the associations' premises uncovered drugs, digital equipment, illicit alcohol, and firearms. Investigators officially filed charges of involvement in prostitution, distribution of obscene materials, and “offending public morals”. In addition, the prosecutor's office claims to have obtained evidence of inappropriate influence on children and minors regarding sexual orientation and gender identity. Turkish Justice Minister Akın Gürlek also stated that these associations had received significant funding from international sources and foreign agencies.

Of course, there is no actual evidence to support the claims made by the Turkish prosecutor's office!

Alongside the arrests, the Turkish government launched a harsh campaign to purge the information space. Based on a ruling by a criminal court judge from the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, the Cybersecurity Presidency was ordered to block access to websites and social media accounts belonging to LGBTQ+ organizations.

The official websites of human rights platforms were blocked by the government KaosGL and Velvele, as well as dozens of activist resources and personal pages. On the social network X (formerly Twitter), approximately 15 accounts belonging to key Turkish LGBTQ+ associations and human rights defenders were blocked at the authorities' request.

The crackdown was given an official name “My Family Is Safe”. Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç publicly emphasized on the social network X that the operations are being conducted as part of the “Decade of Family and Population” — an initiative aimed at protecting public order, children, and the institution of the traditional family. The official goal of this government program is to combat Turkey's declining birth rate and aging population.

Although homosexuality is not a criminal offense under Turkish law, hostility toward LGBTQ+ people is openly expressed from the highest levels of government. President Erdoğan has repeatedly publicly called members of the LGBT community “perverts” and accused them of contributing to the country's declining birth rate.

Human rights organizations and opposition lawmakers sharply criticized the government's actions. The Human Rights Association of Turkey described the operation in an official statement as “state-sponsored discrimination, a policy of fear, and the dismantling of civil society.” Human rights activists stressed that what was happening was not a legal investigation but a political operation aimed at imposing a monolithic family model on society and suppressing independent civil society under the guise of protecting children.

Meanwhile, Özgül Saki, an Istanbul MP from the left-wing pro-Kurdish Democratic Party, said that the existence of the LGBTQ+ community could not be banned or prevented through coercive measures, noting that “LGBTQ+ rights are human rights”.