Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has already considers queer lifestyles an impediment to its goals This has been a chilling week for Turkey’s LGBTQ+ communities, perhaps the most unsettling in many years, as police raids against their members sent shockwaves among the country’s marginalised, precarious but well-connected queer groups.   Turkish police have detained multiple individuals from LGBTQ+ rights organisations across Turkey’s 15 provinces, conducting raids on queer association headquarters, confiscating documents from activists, blocking access to websites and social media accounts.  The coordinated raids surprised some, as Turkey has never legally banned homosexuality from Ottoman times onward, but operations, conducted under the government-branded “My Family is Safe” initiative, began on 12 September. An Istanbul court blocked access to numerous websites and social media accounts belonging to LGBTQ+ organisations and activists.  Over five days, courts launched investigations against at least 116 individuals, nine associations, and thirteen businesses. At least 82 were formally arrested as a result of the raids, 25 of whom are LGBTQ+ activists or have formal connections to queer associations. In January 2025, the Turkish government announced 2025 would be “the year of the family”.  Throughout 2025, there were widely shared fears among Turkey’s LGBTQ+ communities of an operation against queer associations and activists. Yet Ankara didn’t take action, despite heightened government rhetoric against “degenerates” and the “LGBT imposition” and “desexualisation policies of globalists”. Then, in May 2025, the government announced an extension of the project, branding 2026-2035 as the “decade of family and population”.  Ankara considers queer lifestyles an impediment to population growth and promised to establish a “digital family shield” to identify, assess, and prevent “harmful elements” that pose a threat to “the health of the Turkish family”.  Instead of passing a law that legally banned queer relationships, the government launched a wave of police operations, branding the effort “My Family is Safe”. “This operation is taking place now because the optimal conditions for carrying it out have been cultivated over the years,” Seçil Epik, founder of Turkish queer publisher Umami, told Index. “For us activists, this comes as no surprise.” Ankara considers queer lifestyles an impediment to population growth Over the past week, the government blocked the website of Kaos GL, Turkey’s first legal LGBTQ+ association, founded in 1994 and granted legal status in 2005. Editors quickly changed its web address to circumvent the ban.   “We don’t have any clear picture of why the operation has begun this week,” Yıldız Tar, editor of Kaos GL, told Index. “It was more like an escalated process that started in 2015 with the attack on pride marches. Now they’re directly targeting LGBTQI organisations, activists and ordinary LGBTQ+ individuals only because they are queer.” Tar was taken into custody on June 23 and sent to Sincan Prison two days later on allegations of “membership in a terrorist organisation” in the days leading up to the Nato Summit in Ankara.  After a month in detention, authorities released him alongside several other individuals, including academics.  Tar had been previously detained on similar allegations in February 2025 and released in May 2025.  “They tried to criminalise homosexuality by passing a law in parliament, but they couldn’t, due to our efforts. Now they are trying to act as if that law passed,” says Tar. Ankara also banned access to ÜniKuir’s news site, the Pink Life (Pembe Hayat) Association, the Youth LGBTI+ Association, Lambdaistanbul, the Muamma LGBTI+ Association, and other queer publications. The ban extended to the social media accounts of actor and trans rights activist Seyhan Arman, and theatre actor and LGBTQ+ activist Zeynep Esmeray Özadikti. On September 13, a day after the internet bans, police in Ankara raided Kaos GL’s office in the Turkish capital, as well as the apartments of Kaos GL members who served on the association’s supervisory boards. “They are trying to act as if that law passed” Kaos GL reported that more than ten LGBTQ+ activists were detained as part of this investigation, led by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office’s Cybercrimes Bureau.  The Kaos GL raid was based on allegations of “obscenity”, an offence defined under Article 226 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), alongside alleged violations of the Law on Associations.  The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office alleged that “posts containing obscenity” were shared on Kaos GL’s social media accounts in a “manner accessible to children.”  Turkish police and gendarmerie also carried out operations at numerous addresses in Istanbul, targeting queer spaces, like nightclubs and bathhouses, in Beyoğlu and Şişli districts. On 16 September, eight people, five of whom are trans women, were formally arrested, including several Kaos GL board members and the investigative journalist Tuğba Tekerek.  While in custody, Tekerek sent a message to the public: “The ‘lottery’ hit me this time. In 2024, I had traveled to Georgia before the elections and produced various news reports for several outlets. Among them, I had also filed a commissioned story for the Kaos GL news site.”  Tekerek said she was charged with “administering Kaos GL’s Instagram account”, which she said had “absolutely no basis in fact. I simply produced a news report as part of my journalism work. The truth will come out sooner or later.”  Authorities also organised raids in Mersin. The Mersin Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office ordered the detention of individuals who allegedly produced and disseminated “obscene content on social media”. “This sweeping crackdown, in which scores of people have been arrested, has nothing to do with protecting families” As part of the investigation, a Mersin court moved to shut down the “Muamma LGBT Association” and the “Mersin 7 Colors LGBT Association,” both operating in central Mersin. The latest raids drew a strong international reaction. The European Commission said stigmatisation and discrimination run counter to EU values. Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Michael O’Flaherty emphasised that explanations based on “family values” and the “protection of children” couldn’t justify restricting human rights.  International rights organisations, led by Ilga-Europe, characterised the operations as a “coordinated attack”. “This sweeping crackdown, in which scores of people have been arrested, has nothing to do with protecting families and everything to do with further harming and stigmatising a community that has battled decades of discrimination and intimidation,” said Amnesty International’s Esther Major, calling for the release of those detained.  Amidst the backlash, a Turkish court blocked access to social media accounts of Amnesty’s Turkish branch, alongside the leftist daily Evrensel, Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA), and Academics for Peace, among others.  At the time of writing, an Amnesty International spokesperson said they had not received any official notification regarding the decision. Still, they noted that as of September 14, their X account could not be accessed from within Turkey. Local reaction was similarly vocal. MPs from opposition parties condemned the operations.  Several queer and feminist groups prepared to deliver a statement about the raids outside Istanbul’s Çağlayan Courthouse on 15 September.  But when the crowd gathered in front of the courthouse around noon, the police told them to disperse before detaining 106 individuals.  Among those detained were Birgün newspaper reporter Sarya Toprak and Şener Azak, who works for Germany’s ARD network.  “We have reached this point as a result of the state’s years-long campaign to target and criminalise LGBTI+ individuals using all available media channels,” said Epik, the publisher. “LGBTI+ people in Turkey are anxious and fearful, and their very existence is on the verge of being outlawed, yet—as always—they continue to resist.”  READ MORE

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