Turkish police on Sunday detained at least 50 people, including a journalist, during a Gay Pride event in İstanbul that went ahead despite a ban by local authorities and the lockdown of the city’s main gathering point, organizers said.
Police stepped up security around İstanbul’s iconic Taksim Square, erecting iron barriers, while local officials banned demonstrations in key rallying areas, including the Asian-side district of Kadıköy. The governor’s office also restricted subway transport in several central locations.
The Turkish Journalists’ Union said one of those detained was Müberra Ünsal, who holds a valid press card.
“Journalists covering the İstanbul Pride March faced unlawful interference again this year. Despite repeatedly identifying herself as a journalist, Ünsal was also taken into custody,” the union said on X.
LGBT protesters, who gathered in several neighborhoods across the city, vowed to continue their demonstrations.
“My love, today isn’t over yet. In fact, we’re just getting started. We’re not giving up. We’ll keep taking to the streets from every corner we’re in,” the protesters chanted.
The Istanbul Bar Association unfurled a large banner from its building on İstiklal Avenue reading: “LGBT is human rights.”
Homosexuality is not illegal in Turkey, but the LGBT community is frequently targeted by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has blamed it for a declining birth rate.
Since 2015, the annual Pride march has been almost systematically banned and suppressed.
Separately, Turkish authorities on Saturday ordered an İstanbul gay bar to close over unspecified violations following protests by Islamist groups against its owner.
The closure came after Islamist groups launched a campaign on social media against a planned cruise ship tour aimed at LGBT travelers. They claimed the Turkish leg of the program was being organized by Mustafa Doğan Yılmaz, the bar’s owner.
The ship had been scheduled to dock in İstanbul on July 8.
Pro-government daily Yeni Şafak reported that the cruise operator had decided to cancel its İstanbul stop.
© Agence France-Presse