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Turkish police used violence against the Istanbul Pride March on Saturday and detained 113 people. In the western city of İzmir, police detained at least 52 people.
In both cities, the march was banned, in flagrant violation of people’s rights to peaceful assembly and expression.
It all follows an intensification of hate-driven speech against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Turkey, particularly in the lead up to elections in May and since.
Istanbul’s governor, for example, said there would be no permission for events that “threaten [the] institution of the family.” It’s nasty, obviously, but also nonsensical: many families include LGBT folks.
Equally ugly and absurd were discriminatory statements against LGBT people from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who made anti-LGBT hate one of the main themes of his election campaign. At rally after rally, Erdoğan referred to the opposition parties disparagingly as “LGBTers.” Just last week, he called LGBT people the “calamity that threatens the survival of our society.”
It’s very extreme language for people who are simply exercising their rights and seeking to live in freedom like everyone else.
And, interestingly, Turkey’s courts agree.
While municipal authorities across the country have been banning Pride marches and Pride Week events, recent judicial decisions have found these bans to be unlawful.
Over the last three years, eight courts – in Istanbul, İzmir, Ankara, and elsewhere – have ruled that such prohibitions, without evidence of clear, concrete, and imminent danger, are a violation of Turkey’s Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.
Unfortunately, the courts aren’t quick enough. They issue these rulings long after the decisions to ban events, so they’re too late to help ensure LGBT people can meet together without police interference. And public authorities often simply disregard the courts’ rulings anyway.
It all falls into a familiar pattern. The politics of hate drives an effort to intimidate those in a minority group from exercising their rights. Ugly words from top politicians breed police violence and the mass detention of innocent people.
It would be a lot easier for all parties concerned if the authorities would just listen to the courts, obey the law, and let people be.