The Turkish police broke up a Pride March and detained more than 200 protestors according to organisers. The protestors gathered at Taksim Square in the heart of Istanbul in front of heavy police presence despite being told not to by the Governor’s office.
Police loaded the protestors onto buses and took them into detention. AFP journalists noticed four busloads of protestors. Organisers said that more than 200 Pride participants and LGBTQ activists had been detained. They added that the police had refused detainees access to their lawyers.
Although a few of the protestors were released, most of them are still being held in detention. According to News 18, AFP’s chief photographer Bulent Kilic, who was taken away handcuffed from the back, was released later on Sunday after presenting a statement to the police, his lawyer said.
Hundreds of protesters carrying rainbow flags carried out the rally in defiance of the police. “The future is queer,” they chanted. “We are here. We are queer. We are not going anywhere.”
AFP journalists said that the Istanbul Police stopped them from filming the protest. Erol Onderoglu of media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) denounced the arrest of photographer Kilic.
“The police seem to have made it a habit” of detaining him, he wrote, recalling that journalists’ organisations had protested what they said was Kilic’s violent detention last year.
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, had urged Turkish authorities to allow the demonstration while ensuring the safety of the participants. “The human rights of LGBTI people in Turkey need to be effectively protected,” she said in a statement.
Homosexuality is legal in the modern Turkish republic, yet LGBTQ individuals say they face harassment and abuse. Istanbul Pride has taken place every year since 2003 was last held without a ban in 2014, an event which saw thousands of participants in one of the biggest LGBTQ events in the Muslim country.
Latest Update – Turkey releases all detainees
Turkish police have released all of the nearly 400 activists detained during the banned Pride march in Istanbul.
