Turkey intensifies LGBT crackdown as activists and rights groups protest

Tuesday 15 September 2026 - 21:25

Turkey’s widening crackdown on LGBT+ activists has triggered a new wave of arrests and street protests, intensifying criticism from opposition parties and international human rights organizations.

The campaign, launched by Turkish authorities on Sunday, continued on Tuesday in Istanbul and Ankara, where dozens of people were detained amid demonstrations demanding the release of those arrested and an end to restrictions on LGBT+ organizing.

Dozens detained in Istanbul

Lawyers said 91 people were taken into custody following a midday protest outside the Caglayan courthouse on Istanbul’s European side.

Demonstrators gathered with banners defending the right of LGBT+ people to organize and chanted slogans calling for freedom and the immediate release of detainees.

The crackdown has also affected journalists. According to the Turkish Journalists' Union, reporters working for the Turkish newspaper Birgün and Germany’s public broadcaster ARD were among those arrested.

Another journalist detained on Sunday over an article concerning the LGBT+ movement in neighboring Georgia was due to appear before prosecutors on Tuesday, according to the Media and Law Studies Association.

Protesters take to the streets in Ankara

The pressure continued in the capital later in the day, when as many as 300 activists gathered to protest the government’s campaign. A lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish DEM party said 20 people were detained during the demonstration.

The arrests have drawn condemnation from opposition forces, which accuse the authorities of using judicial mechanisms to target people because of their sexual orientation and personal choices.

The Yeni Party said the justice system was being turned into an instrument of broad punishment, while the DEM argued that a government promoting peace could not simultaneously tolerate repression.

Erdogan’s family agenda under scrutiny

The latest campaign comes against the backdrop of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasingly conservative rhetoric on family and social issues.

In 2026, Erdogan declared a “Decade of the Family” and has repeatedly attacked LGBT+ people, whom he has portrayed in highly derogatory terms. He has also linked LGBT+ issues to Turkey’s sharp decline in birth rates.

The authorities' latest operation began with raids on gay bars and the homes of LGBT+ activists. Those detained were reportedly investigated on allegations including obscenity, facilitating prostitution and financial connections with foreign entities.

At the same time, social media accounts belonging to human rights advocates and media organizations were blocked as part of operations promoted under the name “My Family Is Safe.”

Rights groups warn of broader repression

The campaign has generated concern well beyond Turkey. Following criticism from the European Union, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O'Flaherty warned that references to family values or child protection could not, by themselves, justify restrictions on fundamental rights.

Homosexuality is not a criminal offense in Turkey, but LGBT+ people face widespread social hostility, while criticism from rights organizations has increasingly focused on what they describe as hostility coming from the highest levels of government.

Amnesty International called on Turkish authorities to halt the campaign. Esther Major, the organization’s deputy regional director for Europe, argued that the measures were not genuinely aimed at protecting families but instead risked deepening discrimination against an already vulnerable community.

A growing confrontation over civil liberties

For LGBT+ activists and their supporters, the latest arrests have become part of a broader dispute over freedom of expression, assembly and association in Turkey.

The demonstrations in Istanbul and Ankara show that the authorities’ campaign has not silenced opposition. Instead, the arrests have pushed LGBT+ rights back into the center of a wider debate over civil liberties and the limits of state intervention in private and social life.