LGBTI+ groups in Turkey voice concern over increasing hate speech ahead of elections

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As Turkey's presidential and parliamentary elections approach, the ruling party and its allies have ramped up anti-LGBTI+ rhetoric.

At almost every election rally where he spoke at, President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has accused opposition parties, by naming every single of them, being pro-LGBTI+, which is often followed by booing from crowds.

Closing LGBTI+ associations is among the election promises of the New Welfare (Yeniden Refah) Party, a member of the AKP-led People's Alliance.

We spoke with LGBTI+ rights defenders about the increasing hate speech ahead of the elections.

Increasing hatred

Diyarbakır Bar Association LGBTI+ Commission member Okan Altekin said the following:

* The LGBTI+ hostile rhetoric and policies of the Presidential Government Regime, which reached its peak during the election process, is clearly in violation of contractual provisions that are directly binding on fundamental rights and freedoms in the domestic legal system.

* Discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is explicitly prohibited by the European Convention on Human Rights and the Constitution.

* Considering the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights that hate speech against LGBTI+s cannot be evaluated within the scope of freedom of expression, it is clear that the hate policy towards LGBTI+s during the election process has no legal basis.

* If election promises such as the closure of LGBTI+ associations, the ban of pride marches, and the criminalization of LGBTI+ propaganda are fulfilled, the basic rights and freedoms of LGBTI+s will be systematically violated.

* In the antidemocratic climate conditions that Turkey is going through, it is obvious that the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights will not be implemented if the current government wins the election, especially when considering the situation of Selahattin Demirtaş and Osman Kavala, who are still being held hostage despite the decisions of the court.

"The People's Alliance is imitating right-wing regimes"

* In fact, far-right regimes have been attacking the fundamental rights and freedoms of LGBTI+s and the concept of gender identity for a long time, and using them in their election propaganda. In many parts of the world, racist, xenophobic, sexist, and homophobic regimes lost the election. The People's Alliance is imitating far-right regimes.

* When looking at the election campaigns of opposition parties that won elections worldwide, it is seen that they defend especially LGBTI+s and hoist rainbow flags in their election propaganda.

* In Turkey, however, the opposition, especially the Nation Alliance, could not create its own rights-based discourse on homophobia and transphobia, even if it is based on principles.

* Mansur Yavaş, Ekrem İmamoğlu, and Meral Akşener, who spoke on behalf of the Nation's Alliance, reproduced homophobia. On the other hand, we witness that the Labor and Freedom Alliance produces policies against homophobia and transphobia within the opposition bloc. While the hate policies of the People's Alliance may cause an increase in hate crimes against LGBTI+s, the homophobia-reproducing discourse of the Nation Alliance may also lead to the same result.

"Discriminatory rhetoric"

Mahmut Şeren from the University Queer Studies and LGBTI+ Solidarity Association (UniKuir) drew attention to the following points:

In the election campaign and political participation activities we are conducting, we demand that political parties and candidates make rights-based promises regarding LGBTI+ rights and make speeches that will create a climate of peace in society.

* However, there has been silence on this issue for a long time within the Nation Alliance front. Although some of the actors we saw in the field had made some positive statements in the past, they seemed to prefer not to speak out, especially on this issue in the past weeks.

As we enter the last week of the campaign, some may feel the need to say something as the tension rises and there is no room for gaps. But unfortunately, this falls short of the rights-based discourse we are looking for. The statements of the vice presidential candidates Meral Akşener, Mansur Yavaş, and Ekrem İmamoğlu are even behind Ali Babacan, who calls our identity a "lifestyle."

*We must consider the statements of the three politicians mentioned as discriminatory speech. Not only are they discriminatory in speech, but most of the information Mansur Yavaş claims is inaccurate. They have not studied their lessons and have gone after discriminatory speech.

*On the other hand, an alliance that says "love instead of anger" should say that LGBTI+ rights are human rights in an environment where hatred is spread from every wing of the political power. They can only establish the country they promise, a republic crowned with democracy, in this way.

*Meanwhile, LGBTI+ people are already aware that spring will not come for us immediately with a possible change in the outcome of the elections. We can only achieve this by continuing the struggle. Those who support change are supporting it with a heavy heart, despite this reality. However, it is possible to think that this development also negatively affects their motivation.

"Election campaigns filled with hatred"

Sena Yılmaz from the Social Policy Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association (SPoD) said the following:

*The People's Alliance has turned discrimination and hate speech against LGBTI+ people into an election campaign for a long time.

*This crime of discrimination and hate speech committed by all the parties of the People's Alliance, including the AKP and the Yeniden Refah Party, has also infected some parties in the Nation Alliance as the elections approach.

*Mansur Yavaş and Ekrem İmamoğlu responded with homophobia to the homophobic discourse of the People's Alliance at their rallies.

*While we expect a word from the Nation Alliance against the discriminatory politics of the People's Alliance, we are faced with the same homophobia. We will go to the ballot box without leaving anyone behind and emphasizing that they cannot turn us into a tool of hatred for their election campaigns.

(EMK/VK)