Organized homophobic attack by neighbors in İstanbul

"Leave the dominance and come; rainbow is enough for all of us"

(Photo: csgorselarsiv.org/Şehlem Kaçar)

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

An organized homophobic attack happened in İstanbul's Şişli district at Sunday night (December 12).

B.K., who lives in Kurtuluş, sent off a friend from home. Then, a noise was heard from the street. B.K.'s friend was attacked by a group of men.

Speaking to Yıldız Tar from KaosGL, B.K. has said that they were subjected to an organized hate attack and recounted the incident as follows:

"I sent off my friend at around 1 at night. After some time, I heard voices coming from the street. When I looked out of the window, I saw that a large group were beating my friend. My friend could escape. While I was paralyzed with fear, my downstairs neighbor started shouting at me. S/he hurled homophobic and sexist curses, saying that 'my turn will come, too'.

I closed the window and turned off the lights. I went to the door, looked through the peephole. There were sounds of running. I locked the door and went to the room in the back. There were still voices coming from my exterior door in the meantime.

What do reports say?

According to the Kaos GL's 2019 report on homophobia- and transphobia-based hate crimes in Turkey, hate crimes are committed in public before the eyes of witnesses. In most cases, police approach the incidents indifferently or despisingly. The report also shows that there are two or more perpetrators in two thirds of the homophobia- and transphobia-based hate crimes.

Of the 150 cases reported in 2019, there were more than three perpetrators in 41 cases (which was more than 25 percent of all cases).

Another striking finding of the report is the scenes where the hate crimes are committed. A wide majority of them are reportedly committed in public places before the eyes of witnesses. The report says that eyewitnesses do not show any reaction in half of these cases while they act in favor of the assaulters in one quarter of the cases. (EMK/SD)