Turkish police launched coordinated raids before dawn on Sunday, striking the offices of LGBTQ+ rights organizations and HIV-advocacy groups across five cities, The Guardian reported. Istanbul, the capital Ankara, the coastal city of İzmir, along with Aydın and Mersin, were all targeted in the sweep, which authorities justified through accusations of obscenity.
Human Rights Watch's Emma Sinclair-Webb described the scale of the operation bluntly. "This is the widest crackdown on LGBTQ+ people in recent years," she said.
Footage released by the Turkish Interior Ministry captured officers searching filing cabinets, seizing rainbow flags, and escorting handcuffed individuals from the scene. Nightclubs and the private homes of activists were also raided during the operation. Digital devices, narcotics, and a firearm were among the items seized by Istanbul prosecutors, who confirmed dozens of arrests took place during the raids.
More than 100 people were detained in total, though rights groups monitoring the crackdown estimate that 62 remain held on remand. Sinclair-Webb pushed back against the justification offered by officials, accusing them of trying to smear and criminalize LGBTQ+ advocacy. "We believe this includes others not associated with LGBTQ+ groups [detained] for drug and prostitution offences," she said.
Homosexuality itself carries no criminal penalty in Turkey, yet prosecutors in Ankara have pursued LGBTQ+ rights groups under obscenity statutes and NGO regulations, with the specifics of formal charges left unclear. Akın Gürlek, Turkey's justice minister, framed the nationwide operation under the banner "My Family is Safe," stating that the goal was to "protect our children, the institution of the family and the social order."
Venues suspected of links to prostitution and the distribution of obscene material were among the targets, Gürlek added, along with "activities exposing children to such content."
Seven members of Kaos GL's executive board, one of Turkey's oldest LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations and operator of a news site, were counted among those detained, according to the press freedom group Media and Law Studies Association. Journalist Tuğba Tekerek was taken from her Istanbul home and transferred to Ankara for questioning by prosecutors, following the publication of an article with Kaos GL examining the LGBTQ+ community in neighboring Georgia.
Protests erupted in response to the initial raids, and the number of arrests climbed further as the week progressed. Tear gas was deployed against hundreds of demonstrators in İzmir, while at least 150 protesters were detained in Istanbul on Tuesday, with dozens more held in Ankara. Demonstrations outside an Istanbul courthouse led to further arrests after protesters displayed a banner reading "Being LGBTQ+ is not a crime" and chanted "Long live the struggle for freedom," AFP reported.
Last year, lawmakers withdrew a draft amendment to the penal code that would have criminalized LGBTQ+ people nationwide for promoting behavior "contrary to biological sex and general morality." Broad obscenity charges have instead become the primary tool used against LGBTQ+ individuals and organizations. Eleven leaders of the Genç LGBTI+ Association stood trial last month on charges tied to constitutional "family values" provisions, accused of publishing images of same-sex couples kissing, offenses carrying sentences of up to three years.
The justice minister connected the "My Family is Safe" campaign to a broader presidential directive from Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who declared a "decade of the family and population" aimed at raising birthrates nationwide.
Gürlek pointed to demographic trends to justify the campaign's urgency. "Our family ties are weakening, the average age of marriage is rising, divorce rates are increasing and as a result, our fertility rate is declining. To be honest, the statistics are alarming for all of us," he said.
Rights advocates, however, disputed the connection between the arrests and family protection. "Obviously, protecting children and the family is important – no one is debating that – but in a country with a large and concerning record of domestic violence, many cases of child abuse and murders of women, the protection of the family cannot be focused on LGBT people," Sinclair-Webb said.
