LGBTI+ associations react to dissolution requests: 'Rights advocacy is not a crime'

Four LGBTI+ associations objected to the dissolution requests and administrative sanctions against them with a joint press statement they made on 13 November at the Human Rights Association (İHD) Istanbul Branch. SPoD, HEVİ, Lambdaistanbul and the Association of Families and Relatives of LGBTI+ (LİSTAG), stating that their activities for equality, the fight against discrimination and solidarity had been turned into the subject of accusations, said "Rights advocacy is not a crime." The associations demanded that the dissolution requests be rejected, the seal on the Lambdaistanbul Cultural Center be lifted, and detained rights advocates be released.

In the statement, it was recalled that after the operations launched under the name "Ailem Güvende" on 12 September, raids were carried out on association offices and the homes of rights advocates, that many people were taken into custody and arrested, and that access to the associations' websites and social media accounts was blocked.

The chain of releases and arrests was listed as follows: on 13 September four detained people in Mersin were released; on 3 November, after raids on the homes where trans women lived on Bornova Street in İzmir, six trans women were arrested; on 10 November two people detained in the Pozitif-İz case, and on 11 November three members of Kaos GL's Supervisory Board, were released; on 12 November a release decision under judicial control conditions was issued for five detained trans women in Ankara; on 13 November two people who were being tried in detention on the grounds that they were founding members of Lambdaistanbul were released.

In the indictment of the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office dated 2 November, the dissolution of SPoD, which was founded in 2011, and the punishment of four founding members, two of them detained, were requested. According to the association, its work aimed at preventing discrimination in employment was assessed by the prosecutor's office as an attempt at "a separation within the state"; in the inspection report, the demand for equality was interpreted as "the domination of the minority over the majority." The indictment also included the curtains and chairs in the association's meeting room, its conversation meetings, book reading and film screening events, a Lesbian Visibility Day post, and the announcement of the documentary "Benim Çocuğum."

The Cultural Center of Lambdaistanbul, which has been operating since 1993, was sealed on 11 November on the claim that "a venue was being operated without permission." According to the association, upon a letter from the Istanbul Provincial Directorate of Relations with Civil Society, 29 police officers went to the cultural center; in the procedure carried out without a sealing decision obtained from the prosecutor's office, a new search was conducted at the office and 35 chairs, tea and coffee machines, an okey set, UNO cards and a queer feminist bookshelf were recorded in the minutes. The association announced on 13 November that it had learned that its dissolution had been requested once again.

Dissolution was also requested on 12 November for HEVİ, which was founded in 2013; a detention request was made for five founding members, three of them detained. In the indictment, HEVİ's psychosocial support, legal counseling, and peace and equal citizenship work for Kurdish, refugee and minority LGBTI+ people were made the subject of accusations. The associations issued a call to gather at Çağlayan Courthouse on 18 November.