Turkish Police Detain Dozens in Nationwide Raids Targeting LGBTQ Organizations

Turkish police stand outside a nightclub during a raid as part of the "My Family is Safe" operation in Istanbul on September 13, 2026 [AFP]. Turkish police have detained dozens of individuals following nationwide raids directed at LGBTQ organisations.

Law enforcement officers swooped on gay bars, offices, and the homes of activists in major cities including Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, and Mersin on Sunday, marking an escalation in Turkiye’s decade-long hostility toward LGBTQ groups.

State news agency Anadolu cited prosecutors in Ankara, Istanbul, and Izmir, reporting that at least 63 people were detained, according to the AFP news agency. Justice Minister Akin Gurlek stated in a social media post on Sunday that prosecutors had initiated an investigation into 162 suspects, nine associations, and 13 businesses with the stated goal of protecting children, the institution of the family, and public order.

Turkish authorities specifically targeted current and former members of multiple LGBTQ rights and HIV awareness groups. The websites belonging to these organisations were blocked just days before the police raids took place.

Gurlek noted that the "My Family is Safe" operations conducted on Sunday align with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 10-year “Decade of Family and Population” executive order, which is designed to combat Turkiye’s falling birthrate.

“As per the duty to protect families and children given to the state by the constitution, no criminal organization, abuse network or illegal activity which targets children, youths or families will be tolerated!” Gurlek wrote on X.

The LGBTQ rights organisation Kaos GL, whose offices were searched and activists taken into custody, reported that “nearly 50 defenders of the rights of LGBTQ people … have been taken into custody or are subject to legal proceedings involving interrogations or detentions”.

Judicial authorities in Turkiye’s capital, Ankara, accused Kaos GL of publishing “posts containing obscenity” online, claiming the content was accessible to children, according to the rights group.

Rights activists have accused the Turkish government of hardening its rhetoric and intensifying restrictions against Turkiye’s LGBTQ community in recent years.

“The real name of this operation is not ‘My Family is Safe’; it is state-led discrimination, politics of fear and the dismantling of civil society,” the Turkish Human Rights Association stated on X.

The European Parliament’s rapporteur on Turkiye, Nacho Sanchez Amor, condemned the detentions as “a shocking escalation in the repression” observed within the country.

The governing AK Party previously banned Istanbul Pride in 2015, and any attempted gatherings since that time have been violently dispersed by authorities.