LGBTQ rights ‘a threat to Erdogan’s masculine state ideal’, expert says
Turkish courts have jailed 62 LGBTQ activists and supporters following a sweeping weekend crackdown, a legal rights group confirmed Wednesday — the latest move in what analysts describe as a deliberate and escalating campaign against sexual minorities in Turkey.
A calculated political strategy
Koen Slootmaeckers, Reader in International Politics at City St George’s, University of London, says the arrests aren’t random. Speaking with FRANCE 24’s Mark Owen, he argued that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is pursuing a very specific vision of national identity. “Erdoğan wants to claim the idea of a strong, masculine state, and LGBTQ people are a threat to this ideal,” Slootmaeckers said.
It’s a framing that’s been years in the making. Turkey banned Istanbul’s Pride march back in 2015, and authorities have repeatedly used public order and decency laws to suppress LGBTQ gatherings ever since. But this weekend’s mass detentions mark one of the sharpest escalations in recent memory.
Rights groups sound the alarm
Legal advocates tracking the arrests say those remanded in custody include both activists and bystanders who attended or voiced support for a Pride-related event. A spokesperson for one Istanbul-based rights organisation called the detentions “a coordinated attempt to silence an entire community through fear.”
Still, supporters didn’t stay quiet. Social media posts documenting the arrests spread rapidly, drawing condemnation from European human rights bodies and opposition politicians inside Turkey.
Sixty-two people behind bars for who they are or who they support.
Slootmaeckers warned that the crackdown is unlikely to ease ahead of any major political cycle, noting that stoking culture-war anxieties has historically delivered electoral dividends for Erdoğan’s AKP party. And with Turkey’s opposition fragmented, there’s little immediate pressure to reverse course. For LGBTQ Turks, the message from Ankara feels grimly clear — and louder than ever.
