Police attack Pride Parade and detain 373 people

Photos: Evrim Kepenek

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

All events within the scope of the 30th İstanbul LGBTI+ Pride Week have been banned by Beyoğlu, Kadıköy District Governorates, and the İstanbul Governorate.

Despite the ban, the İstanbul LGBTI+ Pride Week Committee announced the 20th Pride Parade to be held on Taksim Sıraselviler Street.

CLICK - Joint statement by LGBTI+ groups against ban on İstanbul Pride Week

Starting in the early hours of yesterday morning (June 26), police set up barricades in Cihangir and Sıraselviler. All streets leading to Sıraselviler were also blocked.

Hours before the start of the march, police evacuated the venues in Cihangir and attacked LGBTI+s sitting in cafes. The police detained at least 373 LGBTI+ activists by handcuffing them from behind, 30 of them were under the age of 18.

Three tourists from Holland were also among those detained.

The police also surrounded lawyers and journalists in Cihangir and then attacked them with shields, throwing reporters to the ground.

Photo: Emre Orman

Police tried to prevent journalists from taking pictures. During the fray, AFP photojournalist Bülent Kılıç was detained and handcuffed from behind.

Cafeler boşaltıyor https://t.co/afJ8G9O36a

— Evrim Kepenek (@kepenekevrimm) June 26, 2022

Despite the enormous number of police and their effort to prevent people from gathering, LGBTI+s came together on Cihangir Pürtelaş Street and held the march. In various locations surrounding Taksim, groups were successfully able to read the press release.

LGBTI+s chanted "The world would shake if faggots were free if queers were free", "Discrimination is a crime not rainbows", and "We will not return. We will not return from this road," "There is Kurdistan, there are queer people", and "Trans murders are political".

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20th Istanbul LGBTI+ Pride Parade Press Release read as follows:

We are holding our 20th Istanbul LGBTI+ Pride Parade on Sunday, June 26, in Taksim, just like every year.

We, who came together with the theme of resistance and rushed to the Gezi in 2013, call out resistance against heterosexism and violence, against the increasing homophobia, transphobia and biphobia, and all kinds of phobias, and male-dominated state policies!

We salute those persecuted for Gezi and sentenced to heavy prison sentences unlawfully by the courts. We also salute the Saturday Mothers/People, who have been gathering every Saturday at Galatasaray Square for 900 weeks in search of their missing and detained yesterday.

Against all policies of disregard, targeting, intimidation, and silencing, we shout again from all Taksim streets. We are here, and we will burn anyone without water in our fire, get used to it or make peace. We have no intention of leaving.

'We will not return. We will not return from this road.'

We stand side by side despite the attacks and intimidation on our homes, streets, and bodies, shoulder to shoulder, leg to shoulder. We are here with the grace of all our friends, killed and driven to suicide because of state repression and hatred. We hold the state accountable for the loss of Zirve Soylu, Hande Kader, Ocean Efe, Eylül Cansın, Roşin Çiçek, Doski Azad, Ahmet Yıldız and all our other friends.

Trans murderes are political

Just as we continued the struggle of displaced sex worker friends in Esat/Eryaman, and refused the displacement of trans sex worker women living and working on Küçük Bayram Sokak despite the pandemic, we now resist together with trans women sex workers on Bornova Street in İzmir. We stand together with our friends and do not accept the fines imposed on our Kurdish trans+ friends who were hand-picked and detained at the Great Women's Gathering held on March 6 last year.

We are aware that war and the repression it creates gradually swallow everyone and everything. We have continued to resist the increasingly heavy military options and war policies in Kurdistan since 2015. Lubunya will not turn their backs on Kurdistan or the Kurdistan LGBTI+ movement.

We continue to resist those who abolished the Istanbul Convention to protect the lives of Lubunya and women overnight. As women and LGBTI+s, we continue our just struggle against this unlawful withdrawal. We are out to those who try to discipline us with policies of impunity; we do not give up on the Istanbul Convention.

No one was held accountable when our friends died crossing the Maritsa river and the Aegean sea. We announce that we are together with our refugee friends, who have been targeted with increasing hostility, and that we defend life together. We know that the mindset targeting LGBTI+s is the same. We are on the streets today dreaming of a boundless, classless, genderless world.

Refugee Lubunya Are Our Pride

We stand together against the targeting and hate campaigns by the state and paramilitary gangs acting with state power.

We know that LGBTI+ hostility is not unique to these lands; we commemorate LGBTI+s who lost their lives in the attack in Oslo two days ago. Our struggle and solidarity know no bounds.
The voices of lost friends, of the lubunya who resist everywhere, are in our hearts. Their energy is in our enthusiasm; their courage is in our resistance. Each of us is a strength to each of us.
Together we have force. We get our power from our resistance, and we continue to resist. As LGBTI+s who celebrate their dignity and existence on the streets every year in the last week of June, we are here with persistence in our struggle, hope for tomorrow, and the courage and solidarity we receive from each other. We were, we are, we will be!

Note: Some of those detained were released after their statements were taken and medical check-ups are completed at night.

(EMK/TY/RT/TB)