ISTANBUL, Sept 13 (Reuters) – Turkish authorities have detained at least 47 people following a series of raids on the offices of LGBTQ+ associations in a probe into prostitution and obscenity, prosecutors said.
The crackdown is part of a campaign that the government says is aimed at protecting family values.
The Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office said operations were carried out over the weekend across 12 provinces against 38 suspects, and 26 of them were detained with authorities seizing drugs, digital equipment, smuggled alcohol and a firearm.
In a separate statement, the Ankara chief prosecutor’s office said a further 21 people had been detained as part of an investigation into the LGBTQ+ association Kaos GL and five people were still being sought.
Kaos GL said at least 50 activists had been detained, including more than 10 who were taken in police raids on their homes.
In addition, it said authorities blocked access to dozens of websites and social media accounts linked to LGBTQ+ organisations, activists and rights advocates.
Dubbed “My Family is Safe”, the government’s crackdown comes as President Tayyip Erdogan promotes a “Decade of Family and Population”, an initiative designed to tackle falling birth rates and an ageing demographic.
Rights groups have accused the Turkish government of increasingly targeting the LGBTQ+ community in recent years through a hardening of rhetoric and restrictions.
“The real name of this operation is not ‘My Family is Safe’; it is state-led discrimination, politics of fear and the dismantling of civil society,” the Turkish Human Rights Association said on X.
Nacho Sanchez Amor, the European Parliament’s Turkey rapporteur, said the sweeping wave of arrests was “a shocking escalation” of repression.
“This imposition of a moral agenda is a blatant violation of fundamental rights and Turkey’s international commitments taking the country down a dark path,” Amor said in a post on X.
Prosecutors said there was evidence that children and underage youths were being inappropriately influenced on issues relating to sexual orientation and gender identity.
Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said investigations coordinated by prosecutors in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Aydin and Mersin involved judicial proceedings against 162 suspects, nine associations and 13 businesses across 15 provinces.
(Reporting by Ece Toksabay and Daren Butler; Editing by Christina Fincher)
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