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Turkey's LGBTQ crackdown Everything can go darker and darker · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Turkish police breaking up a pro-LGBTQ protest in Istanbul. People
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: had gathered to speak out against a wave of raids
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: and arrests targeting Turkey's queer community. But the protest was
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: stopped before it could even begin.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Right now they're preventing everyone from coming in.
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  Speaker 3: It's really terrible.
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  Speaker 2: And we couldn't get in, but right now they're saying
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  Speaker 2: that they're going to arrest people.
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: It's quite bad.
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  Speaker 1: Many here came with a simple message. Being queer is
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: not a crime. But standing together to say that out
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  Speaker 1: loud came with risks. Police filmed people in the crowd.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: A drone hovered overhead. Many protesters were afraid to speak publicly.
• 0:44
  Speaker 5: They want to suppress and silence us. But I don't
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  Speaker 5: think this is just about the LGBT community. I think
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  Speaker 5: it's much broader. They're doing this to establish control over everyone.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: The protest followed a series of coordinated police raids over
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  Speaker 1: the weekend, targeting LGBTQ associations, gay bars and activists' homes.
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  Speaker 1: In Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and other parts of the country,
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  Speaker 1: dozens of people were detained on allegations including obscenity and
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: assisting prostitution. Authorities have also blocked websites and social media
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  Speaker 1: accounts of LGBTQ activists, journalists and rights groups. Same-sex relations
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  Speaker 1: are not illegal in Turkey. a majority Muslim country, but
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  Speaker 1: homophobia is widespread. Queer activists say authorities are increasingly using
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  Speaker 1: criminal investigations and restrictions to target their community.
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  Speaker 6: This whole operation is trying to create a crime and
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  Speaker 6: this crime is being an LGBTQI person. It's all about that.
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  Speaker 6: I feel like really angry. I feel frustrated because this
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  Speaker 6: is our lives you are talking about. you want to
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  Speaker 6: take from us. And you cannot do that.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Turkey's justice minister says the operation, dubbed My Family is Safe,
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  Speaker 1: is about protecting children, families and public order. It is
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  Speaker 1: part of a wider push to strengthen what the government
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: describes as traditional family values. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has
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  Speaker 1: repeatedly portrayed LGBTQ activism as a threat to these values,
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  Speaker 1: even linking it to concerns over Turkey's declining birth rate.
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  Speaker 2: Policies promoting a genderless society, supported and encouraged by global culture,
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  Speaker 2: have reached a point where they threaten the continuation of
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  Speaker 2: the human race and the natural order. The imposition of
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  Speaker 2: the LGBT agenda has morphed into a form of tyranny
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  Speaker 2: and oppression.
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  Speaker 1: LGBTQ activists strongly reject this framing.
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  Speaker 6: And family here in Turkey is really actually under attack. Yes,
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  Speaker 6: but not from LGBTQI people. The family is under attack
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  Speaker 6: of poverty, economic crisis. If you want to protect the family,
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  Speaker 6: you have to solve these problems. LGBTQI people are not
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  Speaker 6: against family. We are sons and daughters and siblings of
• 3:14
  Speaker 6: that families. We are part of that family.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: For Turkey's queer community, the pressure from authorities isn't new.
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  Speaker 1: For years, pride events have been banned or heavily restricted,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: with police breaking up demonstrations and detaining marches. But activists
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  Speaker 1: say the latest crackdown is taking that pressure to a
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  Speaker 1: new level.
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  Speaker 6: This can be a turning point if we don't put
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  Speaker 6: a stop to this. If people all across the country
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  Speaker 6: don't show support or show their solidarity with the LGBTQI
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  Speaker 6: people here in Turkey, everything can go darker and darker.
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  Speaker 1: The developments have also drawn criticism from Europe and the US,
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  Speaker 1: as well as international human rights organizations. They warn of
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  Speaker 1: a serious escalation and repression against Turkey's LGBTQ people and
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: wider civil society. For many who tried to join the
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: protests here in Istanbul, the stakes are deeply personal. They
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  Speaker 1: want to live their lives openly, without fear.
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  Speaker 5: When I came here today and saw other women and
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  Speaker 5: people standing together, side by side, I wasn't afraid. They're
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  Speaker 5: doing everything they can to scare us. But if there's
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  Speaker 5: one place where we refuse to be afraid, it's here,
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  Speaker 5: on the streets.
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  Speaker 1: But with more arrests and restrictions, many are worried this
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  Speaker 1: might be the beginning. of a much deeper and sustained crackdown.
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: And let's bring in now Belinda Deer. She is a
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  Speaker 4: senior advocacy officer with ILGA Europe, an independent international non-governmental
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  Speaker 4: umbrella organization uniting over 700 LGBTQ organizations from 54 countries
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  Speaker 4: across Europe and Central Asia. Thanks for your time, first
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  Speaker 4: of all. I'd like to ask you what actions you
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: have taken in connection with the events in Turkey.
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  Speaker 3: Hi, thank you for having us on. So we've been
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  Speaker 3: working to try to push for the release of the
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  Speaker 3: now almost 300 people that have been detained in Turkey
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  Speaker 3: since the early hours of Sunday morning. And we've been
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  Speaker 3: in touch with a number of international institutions and supporters abroad,
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  Speaker 3: including European governments, to give them information about the rights
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  Speaker 3: that have been violated and to explain and ask for
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  Speaker 3: support in exerting diplomatic pressure to ensure that the LGBTI
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  Speaker 3: people who have been unjustly detained are released.
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  Speaker 4: What are those affected telling you? Have you been able
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  Speaker 4: to be in direct contact with anyone who's been arrested?
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  Speaker 6: No.
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  Speaker 3: Communication with people who have been arrested isn't possible, of course.
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  Speaker 3: There are very few local activists that we can be
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  Speaker 3: in touch with, but they are active in sharing information,
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  Speaker 3: which is very important. We're looking at now approximately 300
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  Speaker 3: people either detained or arrested, and those are LGBTI people
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  Speaker 3: who were taken from clubs and bars, but also LGBTI
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  Speaker 3: human rights defenders who had their homes raided during the
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  Speaker 3: night and they were taken away in detention. And we
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  Speaker 3: know that the prosecutor is looking for also the dissolution
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  Speaker 3: of LGBTI organizations in Turkey. A lot of the people
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  Speaker 3: also that are part of this figure are indeed the
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  Speaker 3: protesters who went out en masse yesterday and are continuing
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  Speaker 3: to protest. They're also being detained. We know that there
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  Speaker 3: is a specific campaign by the government. that paints LGBTI
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  Speaker 3: people and organizing as a national security threat. They pretend
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  Speaker 3: to defend the family, even though they're even arresting and
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  Speaker 3: detaining the families of LGBTI people who have been detained.
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  Speaker 3: And they are, in general, looking at the funding of
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  Speaker 3: organizations that either work specifically on LGBTI equality or who
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  Speaker 3: have supported LGBTI equality and publishing reports, painting this kind
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  Speaker 3: of democratic civil society work as something that is somehow covert.
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  Speaker 3: It's a framing that they are using and we believe
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  Speaker 3: they're using to discredit democratic civil society more broadly in Turkey.
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  Speaker 4: I'd like to ask you, you know, the European Union,
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: the Council of Europe, the United Nations, are they doing
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  Speaker 4: enough to support the community in Turkey given these incidents?
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  Speaker 3: So far, we see the institutions doing what they can.
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  Speaker 3: We obviously would want them to do.
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  Speaker 6: As much as they can.
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  Speaker 3: I think that the most power lies in individual governments.
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  Speaker 3: So we are really pushing for diplomatic interventions. Something that
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  Speaker 3: is very important at the moment is that also the
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  Speaker 3: governments and basically the institutions that have some kind of
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  Speaker 3: an office or an embassy in Turkey are reaching out
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  Speaker 3: to LGBTI activists to see what their needs are and
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  Speaker 3: are making sure they're monitoring the trials and continuing to
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  Speaker 3: support in whatever way they can. Something else that's very
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: important is that whilst there is this smear campaign against
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: international funding of LGBTI organizations in Turkey, European governments and
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  Speaker 3: institutions and other organizations that support the LGBTI community should
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  Speaker 3: not withhold or stop funding. It's more important now than
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  Speaker 3: ever to support these organizations financially and these human rights
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  Speaker 3: defenders in their work, which is, as we must remember,
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  Speaker 3: the work to just ensure that LGBTI people can live
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  Speaker 3: in safety and in dignity in Turkey.
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: Belinda Deer of ILGA Europe, thank you so much.
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  Speaker 6: Thank you.