published26. June 2022, 22:18
Since the 2014 Istanbul Pride Parade attracted more than 100,000 participants, the festival has been banned by the authorities year following year. Nevertheless, hundreds came together once more this year and protested with rainbow colors for more acceptance.
The government has banned the event since more than 100,000 people attended the Pride in 2014.
REUTERS
The official reason is security concerns.
REUTERS
According to the organizers, the Turkish police arrested more than 200 participants at an officially banned Pride parade in Istanbul on Sunday. In addition to activists, those arrested included AFP photographer Bülent Kilic and other journalists, a team from the news agency reported on Sunday. The governor of Istanbul banned the Pride parade.
Hundreds of protesters with rainbow flags nevertheless gathered in the streets around Taksim Square, which was closed to the public. They defied the police and marched through the streets of Cihangir neighborhood for regarding an hour. They shouted “The future is queer!” and «You are not alone!».
Indiscriminately arrested people
According to the AFP team, the police had arrested people indiscriminately, including journalists, in several bars in Cihangir before the start of the parade. According to several eyewitnesses, the police tried to prevent members of the press from filming the arrests. AFP photographer Kilic was arrested in the same circumstances last year.
The Turkish authorities had “apparently made it a habit to arrest the AFP photojournalist Bülent Kilic,” criticized the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Twitter. RSF spokesman Erol Onderonglu accused the authorities of ongoing “violence and arbitrary arrests” of journalists.
Arrested are released
“Anyone arrested solely for taking part in the Pride march must be released immediately and unconditionally,” Amnesty International’s Milena Buyum said. From the early evening, those arrested were gradually released.
After a sensational Pride parade in Istanbul in 2014 with more than 100,000 participants, the Turkish authorities had repeatedly banned the event in recent years, officially for security reasons.
The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, called on the Turkish authorities on Friday to allow the parade to take place. “The human rights of LGBTI people in Turkey must be effectively protected,” she said.
(AFP/bho)
