25/02/2025 | Writer: Kaos GL
Istanbul Trans Pride Week and Istanbul LGBTI+ Pride Week made a press declaration at IHD Istanbul Branch and demanded the release of journalists, politicians and artists arrested on 21 February.
Photo: Tuğçe Yılmaz
30 of 52 people who were detained on 18 February in the Istanbul based operation against the Peoples' Democratic Congress (HDK) were arrested on 21 February.
Among those arrested are KaosGL.org Editor-in-Chief Yıldız Tar, LGBTI+ activist Erkin Barın Göylüler, KaosGL.org writer Ayşe Panuş, journalists Elif Akgül and Ercüment Akdeniz.
According to bianet's Tuğçe Yılmaz, 33rd Istanbul LGBTI+ Pride Week and 11th Istanbul Trans Pride Week organised a press statement against the arrests today at the Istanbul Branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD).
The statement signed by 41 organisations, including Kaos GL Association, is as follows:
‘We expose the state mind that arrested 30 people just for marching side by side with the oppressed. All rights defenders arrested on the grounds of the investigation carried out within the scope of the operation against HDK must be released immediately.
Simultaneous operations were organised against HDK in 10 provinces. Within the scope of these operations, many houses were raided and 50 people were detained, including Yıldız and Erkin, with whom we stood shoulder to shoulder in the LGBTI+ struggle. While 35 of the detainees were referred to the court with the demand for arrest, 30 people were arrested as of the night between 21 February and 22 February, 13 people were given house arrest, and 7 people were released on judicial control conditions.
This situation is a clear indication that the pressure and political operations against the will of HDK, the peoples of Turkey who insist on equal life, LGBTI+'s, women, revolutionaries and all those who resist will increase.
On the one hand, while the rhetoric of ‘solution’ is rising, on the other hand, elected people are targeted with trustee policies, democratic and peaceful political activities are criminalised. The increasing attacks on democratic rights are direct attacks on the peoples' desire for an equal and free life together. The arrested people are activists, artists, journalists and life defenders who have been struggling for democracy, human rights and peace for years. The state mind, which is not content with seeing our animal friends as property to be owned, uses human life as an excuse to target and antagonise stray animals with the Slaughter Law, while targeting the life and freedom of all people who stand against it.
‘Political pressure must end immediately’
The AKP government, which declared 2025 as the ‘Family Year’, continues its attacks on LGBTI+'s without slowing down. Yıldız's interviews with women and LGBTI+s between 2012 and 2015 are shown as a criminal offence. However, journalism is not a crime, on the contrary, it is a necessity to pursue the truth! The phone calls made in 2012 and the result of technical surveillance are presented as ‘evidence’. However, the judge who issued the technical surveillance decision is an authority known for its irregular wiretapping and surveillance decisions in 2015.
The struggle of our comrade Erkin, with whom we have been fighting against the hostile policies of the state for years, is being presented as a crime. We are aware that these arrests are a flagrant attack on the will for peace and coexistence. It is no coincidence that everyone who stands with the Kurdish people is targeted.
Political repression must end immediately, democratic rights must not be prevented; Erkin, Yıldız and all our comrades must be released immediately!
Ayşe Panuş, Elif Akgül, İlknur Melengeç, Mehmet Saltoğlu, Atila Özdoğan, Ece Yıldız Karabacak, Özlem Geza Sezer Bayram, Yakup Kadri Karabacak, Aynur Cengiz, Ayşe Nengi Çelik, Dilek Posl, Kardelen Taş, Melek Kızılocak, Şengül Erdoğan, Ercüment Akdeniz, İbrahim Halit Elçi, Zeysu Fakir, Alya Akkuş, Esengül Demir, Melih Kayhan Pala, Osman Zorba, Pınar Aydınlar, Saime Oğuzhan, Sema Barbaros, Semiha Şahin, Ahmet Saymadi, Berfin Azdal, Emre Can Bayram, Erkin and Yıldız. ’
Özgül Saki: ‘The government sees the united struggle as an obstacle’
Following the press statement, DEM Party Istanbul MP Özgül Saki also took the floor. Saki used the following expressions in her speech:
‘This attack on HDK shows us that the government sees the united struggle here as an obstacle to itself. Even the possibility of peace frightens this power. The government's fear of Gezi is still hot, that's why it is afraid of the coming together of people who want equality and freedom, feminist struggle, LGBTI+ struggle. 30 of our friends have been arrested, but they are trying to make each of us who remain outside live like a prisoner. We need to raise our struggle against those who want to break up the united struggle.’
After Saki, representatives of SOLDEP LGBTI+, YDG Youth and Labour Party also made statements.
The organisations that signed the press statement are as follows:
11th Istanbul Trans Pride Week Committee, 33rd Istanbul LGBTI+ Pride Week Committee, 4th Eskişehir Pride Week Committee, 13th Istanbul LGBTI+ Pride Week Committee, 20 November Association for Combating Hate Crimes, Ankara Pride Committee, Boğaziçi University LGBTIA+ Studies Club, DEM Party Kadıköy District Organisation, DEM Party MP Özgül Saki, Colours of Resistance, Women Together Strong (KBG), Queer Baykuş, Queer Yıldız, Kaos GL Association, Mersin 7 Colour LGBTI+ Association, METU LGBTIQAA+, Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), Sara Collective, SOLDEP LGBTI+ Commission, Law for Life Initiative, IHD Istanbul Branch, IHD Istanbul LGBTI+ Rights Commission, Demir Leblebi, Aydın LGBTI+ Solidarity, Lavender LGBTI+, Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party (DSİP), Queerdeer, Demos Research Collective, Yaşatacağız Platform, Media and Law Association Studies (MLSA), Animal Life Freedom Initiative, New Democratic Youth (YDG), 7Tepe7Renk, Revolutionary Party, Queer Mar, Socialist Women's Movement (SKH), Kaos GL Association, Social Studies for Peace Association, Trakya Queer, Istanbul University Equality Community, KuirAnka, Bilgi Rainbow.
Tags: human rights, media
