Turkey second-worst country in Europe for LGBTI+s

"Trans murders are political" (Photo: Evrensel)

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Turkey has ranked 48th out of 49 countries in the "Rainbow Index" of the European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA).

The country scored only 3.83 out of 100, only surpassing Azerbaijan with 2.33 points. Armenia and Russia were above Turkey in the index with 7.49 and 10.20 points, respectively.

Turkey's score was 0 percent in four of the six sub-categories of the index, namely "equality and non-discrimination," "family," "hate crime and hate speech" and "asylum."

It scored 12.5 percent in "legal gender recognition and bodily integrity." According to the country's laws, people who went through a gender reassignment surgery can officially change their genders. The country's points in "civil society space" was also relatively higher with 16.33 percent.

The highest rank Turkey has achieved since 2009 was 41, surpassing countries like Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Ukraine, Macedonia and Belarus. 

ILGA makes the following recommendations for Turkey:

• Introducing hate crime and hate speech laws and policies that explicitly cover all bias-motivated crimes based on sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics.
• Developing a fair, transparent legal framework for legal gender recognition, based on a process of self-determination and free from abusive requirements (such as sterilisation, GID/medical diagnosis, or surgical/medical intervention).
• Removing obstacles to the effective exercise of freedom of assembly, ensuring state protection.(EMK/VK)