Turkish police carry out widespread raids on LGBTQ bars, activists’ homes

By AFP 13 September 2026, 12:22 pm

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Illustrative: Demonstrators with hands restrained by zip-ties get in a police van as they are detained by police, after the LGBT Pride March in the Kadikoy district to celebrate the Pride Month in Istanbul, on June 30, 2024. (KEMAL ASLAN/AFP)

Turkish police make a slew of arrests in raids on gay bars and the homes of LGBTQ activists, authorities and one organisation targeted says.

“As part of the ‘My Family is Safe’ operations… carried out in collaboration with our police and gendarmerie forces, legal proceedings have been initiated against 162 suspects, 9 organisations and 13 companies in … a total of 15 provinces,” including Istanbul and Ankara, justice minister Akin Gurlek posts on X.

Gurlek does not specify how many people had been taken into custody, but said the raids came in the context of “Decade of the Family” proclaimed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, aimed at “protecting our children, the institution of the family and social order.”

In Istanbul, police carried out raids on several gay bars and a nightclub regarded as a haven for the LGBTQ community, according to video footage from pro-government media.

Also targeted was a men’s hammam reputed to be a venue for prostitution.

LGBTQ rights organisation Kaos GL says in a statement that “more than ten” of its members were arrested after police searched their homes.

While same-sex relations are not a criminal offence in Turkey, homophobia is widespread, with Erdogan regularly describing LGBTQ people as “perverts” responsible for the falling birth rate.

“Existence cannot be banned or restricted. LGBTI+ rights are human rights!” Ozgul Saki, an MP from the pro-Kurdish left-wing DEM party in Istanbul, says on X on Sunday.