Turkey Raids LGBTI Groups Under 'Family Safety' Banner
Censorship blocking · 16.09.2026

On the night of September 13, Turkish police carried out an operation with the telling name "your family is safe." The result: 162 detained, among them 50-60 human rights defenders and LGBTI activists. Charges include "indecency," "prostitution," and other formulations from the "morality" category — a morality apparently protected through nighttime raids.

The selection of targets is telling: those hit weren't rank-and-file members but board and audit committee members — the people through whom organizations officially function. Detentions took place at Kaos GL and Pembe Hayat in Ankara, Muamma and 7 Renk in Mersin, SPoD, Hevi, Lambda, LİSTAG, Pozitif Yaşam, and Pozitif-iz in Istanbul. Nine organizations and 13 businesses targeted in a single operation.

Hours before the raids, a court blocked the websites and social media accounts of LGBTI organizations. The timing is so telling that calling it a coincidence would be naive.

A separate issue is the seized digital equipment. Such organizations' databases hold data on activists, people living with HIV, survivors of violence, lawyers, journalists, and donors. This isn't just "case evidence" — it's sensitive information about real people, and how it will now be used remains unknown.

Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç explained the matter in plain terms: an investigation against associations that, quote, "promote LGBT and immorality." The Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) has already been brought in to examine foreign funding of NGOs. International cooperation and grants are suddenly turning into elements of a crime, even though there's nothing criminal about them in essence.

Human rights organizations — from ILGA-Europe to Front Line Defenders and ARTICLE 19 — are demanding the immediate release of those detained, the lifting of the blocks, and an end to using "family protection" rhetoric as cover for discrimination. The demand is essentially simple: human rights work is not a crime, and a crackdown on civil society under the banner of morality isn't a fight for decency — it's an imitation of one, carried out with police batons.

Source: https://www.article19.org/resources/turkiye-end-attacks-on-lgbti-organisations-activists-and-protesters-now/