Monday, September 14, 2026 -Turkish authorities have detained at least 47 people following a series of raids on the offices of LGBTQ+ associations in a probe into prostitution and obscenity, prosecutors said on Sunday.
The crackdown is part of a campaign that the government says
is aimed at protecting family values.
The Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office said operations were
carried out over the weekend across 12 provinces against 38
suspects, and 26 of them were detained with authorities seizing drugs, digital
equipment, smuggled alcohol and a firearm.
In a separate statement, the Ankara chief prosecutor’s office said a further 21 people
had been detained as part of an investigation into the
LGBTQ+ association Kaos GL and five people were still being sought.
Kaos GL said at least 50 activists had been detained,
including more than 10 who were taken in police raids on their homes.
In addition, it said authorities blocked access to dozens of
websites and social media accounts linked to LGBTQ+
organisations, activists and rights advocates.
Dubbed “My Family is Safe”, the government’s crackdown
comes as President Tayyip Erdogan promotes a “Decade of Family and Population”, an initiative designed to tackle falling birth rates
and an ageing demographic.
Rights groups have accused the Turkish government of
increasingly targeting the LGBTQ+ community in recent years through a hardening
of rhetoric and restrictions.
“The real name of this operation is not ‘My Family is Safe’;
it is state-led discrimination, politics of fear and the dismantling
of civil society,” the
Turkish Human Rights Association said on X.
Nacho Sanchez Amor, the European Parliament’s Turkey
rapporteur, said the sweeping wave of arrests was “a shocking escalation” of
repression.
“This imposition of a moral agenda is a
blatant violation of fundamental rights and Turkey’s international commitments taking
the country down a dark path,” Amor said in a post on X.
Prosecutors said there was evidence that children and
underage youths were being inappropriately influenced on issues relating
to sexual
orientation and gender identity.
Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said investigations
coordinated by prosecutors in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Aydin and Mersin
involved judicial proceedings against 162 suspects, nine associations and
13 businesses across 15 provinces.
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