What Activists on the Ground Want You to Know About Türkiye’s Crackdown on LGBTQI+ Rights

The views expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights or Harvard Kennedy School. These perspectives have been presented to encourage debate on important public policy challenges. 

Activists describe a coordinated campaign of arrests, pretrial imprisonment, censorship, and pressure on LGBTQI+ civil society.

The operations that began in Türkiye on September 12 are not a series of isolated arrests. Activists on the ground describe a coordinated effort to criminalize LGBTQI+ civil society, restrict access to information, and intimidate the wider human rights movement.

Because speaking publicly carries significant risk, all activists who contributed to this commentary are unnamed. Their accounts point to a crackdown reaching nearly every facet of LGBTQI+ existence after years of scapegoating and shrinking civic space.

What Is Happening

Police launched overnight raids across five provinces under an operation called “My Family Is Safe.” Homes, association offices, and entertainment venues were searched. Seven LGBTQI+ rights organizations and two organizations working with people living with HIV were targeted.

According to a detailed briefing shared by an activist, at least 112 people had been detained by late September 15, including 43 LGBTQI+ rights defenders. At least 62 people had been arrested, including at least 16 activists or people connected to LGBTQI+ associations. Judicial proceedings were still underway, and activists expected the figures to rise. Prosecutors also announced plans to pursue cases seeking the dissolution of associations.

The majority of those arrested were trans women facing prostitution-related allegations. Other charges included obscenity, violations of the Law on Associations, drug-related offences, and facilitating prostitution. Activists argue that authorities are using these allegations to blur the distinction between alleged criminal conduct and legitimate human rights work.

Why Pretrial Detention Marks an Escalation

One of the most alarming developments is the widespread use of pretrial detention against people who run or govern civil society organizations. One activist reported that more than 20 NGO board and supervisory members had been arrested and jailed while awaiting trial.

In previous cases, activists explained, pretrial detention was generally limited in number or directed at particular activists and journalists. This operation represents a significant change: numerous members of LGBTQI+ organizations have now been imprisoned before trial.

“This crackdown on every facet of [LGBTQI+] existence in Türkiye came as a result of years of scapegoating, shrinking of civic space and restriction of [LGBTQI+] rights.” — Activist in Türkiye, speaking anonymously for safety

Detainees have reportedly been questioned about ordinary organizational activities, including membership, staffing, funding, publications, and events. Questions have also focused on whether their work “encourages” homosexuality or transgender identities among young people. This treats the basic work of a human rights organization as evidence of criminal activity.

The False Premise Behind the New Crackdown

Sexual orientation and gender identity are not ideologies into which organizations recruit children. LGBTQI+ visibility is not recruitment. Being LGBTQI+ is part of natural human diversity and has been documented throughout recorded history. The claim that activists or organizations can turn people gay or transgender is false, a centuries-old myth weaponized by anti-LGBTQI+ actors.

Weaponizing this myth is part of the illiberal playbook designed to create fear among ordinary people and manufacture a false threat in order to justify crackdowns. That premise is now being used to justify raids, censorship, pretrial imprisonment, threats to dissolve organizations, and the physical detention of activists.

On September 14, Justice Minister Akın Gürlek announced that the Ministry had sent a nationwide directive to 175 chief public prosecutors’ offices across all 81 provinces. Instrumentalizing this manufactured threat, the directive instructs prosecutors to investigate activities deemed to encourage the “genderlessness” of children and young people, pursue possible criminal connections, preserve digital evidence, and seek content removal or access restrictions where authorities consider them necessary. Because “genderlessness” is undefined, activists fear it could provide a broad framework for investigating lawful LGBTQI+ advocacy, education, and support services.

The Crackdown Extends Beyond LGBTQI+ Organizations

The operations have been accompanied by sweeping restrictions on information and solidarity. Courts have reportedly blocked hundreds of websites and social-media accounts belonging to journalists, newspapers, feminist organizations, HIV organizations, university LGBTQI+ clubs, solidarity groups, and human rights organizations, including Amnesty International.

Protests have also been met with detention. Activists reported that 124 protesters were detained across Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir, including lawyers and journalists.

LGBTQI+ organizations have meanwhile been portrayed as “foreign agents,” and international funding has been cast as evidence of an effort to destabilize Türkiye, another well-known tactic in the illiberal playbook against LGBTQI+ human rights defenders. One activist connected these attacks to a broader international pattern:

“This attack on human rights is one of the reflections of a global far-right move to criminalize and delegitimize [LGBTQI+] existence.” — Activist in Türkiye, speaking anonymously for safety

What Activists Are Asking the International Community to Do (Updated 9/23/26)

• Call for the immediate release of people detained solely for legitimate human rights work and ensure their safety, due process, and effective legal defense.
• Use bilateral and multilateral diplomatic channels to raise concerns directly with Turkish authorities and through the European Union, Council of Europe, and United Nations.
• Go beyond general statements of concern and clearly condemn the targeting of human rights defenders and LGBTQI+ people.
• Participate in solidarity actions supporting LGBTQI+ people, activists, and organizations in Türkiye.
• Monitor efforts to criminalize international funding and cooperation, which could threaten civil society far beyond the LGBTQI+ movement.
• Continue supporting independent organizations rather than allowing repression to cause international donors and partners to retreat.

The message from activists on the ground is clear: public attention matters, diplomatic pressure matters, and sustained support matters. The international community must respond to the immediate detentions while also protecting the organizations, networks, and relationships that make long-term human rights work possible.