Turkish police launch an arrest campaign targeting the LGBT community

On Sunday, Turkish police carried out a large-scale arrest campaign during raids targeting gay bars and the homes of LGBT activists, according to what the authorities and one of the targeted organizations reported.

“Legal proceedings have been initiated against 162 suspects, nine organizations, and 13 companies in 15 provinces,” including Istanbul and Ankara, as part of the “My Family is Safe” operations, which were carried out in cooperation between the police and the gendarmerie, Justice Minister Akin Gorlek wrote on the X platform.

Gorlek did not specify the number of people who were arrested, but he said that the raids fall within the context of the “family contract” announced by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with the aim of “protecting our children, the family institution, and the social system.”

In Istanbul, police raided a number of gay bars and a nightclub that is a haven for members of the LGBT community, according to video clips broadcast by pro-government media.

KAOS LG, an organization defending LGBT rights, said in a statement that "more than a dozen" of its members stood up after the police raided their homes.

The organization added that many websites and social media accounts were also blocked.

The organization said that judicial authorities in the capital claimed that “Kaos LG” published “posts containing obscene material” on its website and social media accounts, and that this content was available to children.

On Saturday, the authorities demanded the closure of the “Kaws LG” account on the “X” platform, in addition to the accounts of about 15 other organizations concerned with the rights of the LGBT community.

Although homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey, homophobia is widespread, and Erdogan regularly describes LGBT people as “deviant” and holds them responsible for the low birth rate.

"Existence cannot be banned or restricted. LGBT rights are human rights," Ozgul Saki, a lawmaker for the leftist pro-Kurdish Equality and Peoples' Democracy (Dem) party in Istanbul, wrote on the X platform on Sunday.