Turkey pro-Kurd party slams LGBTQ crackdown

Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM party denounces the authorities’ crackdown on LGBTQ people, saying “repression” undermines the peace process it is mediating between Ankara and PKK militants.

“The language of peace cannot go hand in hand with repression,” the party says on X.

“Pursuing a peace process and building a democratic society while speaking of peace on the one hand and restricting democratic space on the other will neither be convincing nor inspire confidence.”

Turkish police arrested dozens of people on Sunday in gay bars and at the homes of LGBTQ activists on charges including “obscenity,” “assisting prostitution” and having “financial links abroad.”

Authorities have blocked social media accounts belonging to human rights defenders and media outlets as part of operations dubbed “My Family Is Safe.”

Turkish Justice Minister Akin Gurlek has vowed to continue the campaign, brushing off concerns voiced by the European Union.

The DEM is acting as an intermediary between the Turkish government and jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, following the Kurdish force’s disbandment. DEM is regularly accused by other opposition parties of sparing the government criticism so as not to jeopardize the peace process aimed at ending its decades-long separatist campaign.

Same-sex relations is not a criminal offense in Turkey, but homophobia is prevalent, including at the highest levels of the state.