Turkey detains dozens of LGBTQ activists during pride march

People shout slogans during the LGBTQ Pride March in Istanbul, Turkey, June 25, 2023. [AP Photo]

Tulay Savas, a lawyer and one of the founding members of LISTAG, a support group for parents of LGBTQ children in Turkey, says that the government's discrimination and targeting of LGBTs have increased over seven years.

"This has become a government policy. Now all their goals are to destroy LGBTs; this is how we perceive it," Savas told VOA.

"Especially trans people are attacked more often because of their appearance. The worry that there will be more attacks in the future makes us very sad," Savas said.

The LGBTI+ Human Rights Report of 2022 by Ankara-based LGBTQ rights group KAOS-GL, found a sharp uptick in the number of LGBTQ people experiencing violations of their personal rights last year, with 571 incidents reported compared to 43 in 2020.

Lack of legal protection

Beha Yildiz points out that Turkish laws do not provide protections based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression.

The Turkish Constitution's Article 10 prohibits discrimination based on "language, race, color, sex, political opinion, philosophical belief, religion, and sect, or any such considerations."

"When we, as LGBT people, are subjected to any discrimination, we have to make our legal case based on 'any such considerations' as the category," Yildiz told VOA, adding that this lack of constitutional recognition is one of the biggest problems of LGBTs in Turkey.

In 2021, the Turkish government withdrew from the Istanbul Convention, a human rights treaty of the Council of Europe, which provided a legal framework to combat violence against women, including lesbian, bisexual, trans women, and intersex people.

After his election victory, Erdogan is pushing for constitutional amendments to define the family as a unit composed of marriage between a man and a woman. By doing this, his government aims to prevent any possibility of marriage equality in the future.

"From the possible constitutional amendments, it seems that women's rights would be worsened, and legislation on LGBT rights fueled by hate would be on the agenda," Sena Kaleli, a former parliamentarian from the main opposition Republican People's Party, told VOA.