Orhan Sait Berber, Washington, D.C.
Human rights advocates gathered outside the Turkish Embassy in Washington on Friday to protest Turkey’s nationwide crackdown on LGBTQ groups and activists.
The demonstration was organized by the Council for Global Equality, Amnesty International USA, Outright International and Health GAP.
“This crackdown is not making families safer,” Amnesty International USA Executive Director Nadia Daar said outside the embassy. Keifer Buckingham, managing director of the Council for Global Equality, told the gathering, “Homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey.”
Asia Russell, executive director of Health GAP, and Neela Ghoshal, senior director of law, policy and research at Outright International, also addressed the gathering.
Similar protests took place in Madrid and other cities on Friday.
The Congressional Equality Caucus and Republican Congressman Carlos Giménez of Florida have also condemned the crackdown.
The Washington demonstration followed a call from the United Nations Human Rights Office on Thursday for Turkey to immediately release people it said had been arbitrarily detained.
The office voiced concern over reports of mass detentions and ill-treatment in custody and warned of the consequences for civic space. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called on Turkey to protect everyone’s rights without discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Human rights and LGBTQ rights advocates from France, Sweden, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Iceland also urged Turkey on Thursday to respect freedom of peaceful assembly, association and expression.
Raids began over the weekend of September 12 and 13. Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said the “My Family Is Safe” operation involved legal action against 162 people, nine associations and 13 businesses across 15 provinces.
The latest figures show that 116 people were detained in the raids and 82 were jailed pending trial. Those jailed included 20 people from LGBTQ associations, two from HIV organizations, two activists and one journalist. Others face accusations related to prostitution, drug offenses and other crimes. Not everyone jailed is accused of LGBTQ advocacy.
Police also detained 106 people who had gathered outside İstanbul’s Çağlayan courthouse on September 15 to protest the raids. Everyone in that group, including two journalists, was released after health checks on Wednesday, Euronews reported.
Proceedings have also been initiated to dissolve two LGBTQ associations in the southern province of Mersin, although no court has issued a final closure order. The crackdown has been accompanied by restrictions on websites and social media accounts belonging to rights groups, journalists and media outlets, including Amnesty International’s Turkey account on X.
Press freedom groups have criticized the jailing of journalist Tuğba Tekerek over a 2024 article she wrote for the LGBTQ rights group Kaos GL about LGBTQ people during elections in Georgia. The Committee to Protect Journalists has called for her unconditional release.
Same-sex relations are legal in Turkey, but LGBTQ people and organizations have faced growing pressure through bans on Pride events, investigations and online restrictions. The government has linked the operations to its “Decade of Family and Population,” a program running from 2026 to 2035 that was introduced in response to declining birth rates and an aging population.
