The government has called the campaign an effort to protect families. Rights organizations have accused the authorities of criminalizing LGBTQ people and of seeking to thwart political activism. Video Dozens Arrested Across Turkey in LGBTQ Crackdown Rights groups have accused the authorities in Turkey of criminalizing LGBTQ people and lifestyles after a campaign of arrests targeted the community.

Credit Credit... Dilara Acikgoz/Associated Press Sept. 16, 2026, 9:10 a.m. ET The authorities in Turkey have arrested dozens of people since early Sunday as part of a broad crackdown on LGBTQ activists and associations, according to officials, rights groups and lawyers for the detained. The government has called the campaign an effort to protect Turkish families, but rights organizations have accused the authorities of criminalizing LGBTQ people and lifestyles they don't like, and of seeking to stomp out rights activism.

Some critics of the campaign say the government is also targeting LGBTQ people because members of that community are an active part of the political opposition to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Emma Sinclair-Webb, who monitors Turkey for Human Rights Watch, said the actions were "a dramatic escalation in Turkey's campaign against LGBT. rights and civil society."The government, she noted, was conflating gay rights advocacy with prostitution, drug use and obscenity in a way that "smears LGBT people." "Their very identity is really being criminalized here," she added. Homosexuality is not illegal in Turkey, but Mr. Erdogan's government has frequently demonized LGBTQ people and sought to push them out of public life.

The authorities have banned Pride parades in Turkish cities, and Mr. Erdogan has referred to LGBTQ people as "deviants" who were "spreading like the plague." Mr. Erdogan has also promoted a conservative view of the family in which marriage is between a man and a woman, men are the breadwinners and women are encouraged to have at least three children. This year begins what Mr. Erdogan has called the "Decade of Family and Population," during which the government hopes to push up Turkey's sagging birthrate with cash incentives and other child-friendly policies. The arrests began early Sunday, when the security forces in Istanbul, Ankara and other Turkish cities detained more than 60 people in their homes, and raided gay bars and the offices of gay rights organizations.

On Monday, scores of demonstrators protesting the detentions were arrested in Istanbul. The government also blocked numerous social media accounts belonging to gay rights groups, as well as the accounts of a sexual health organization, a legal monitor, reporters who wrote about the arrests and the Turkey office of Amnesty International. Image Security forces in Istanbul on Tuesday arrested demonstrators protesting the detention of LGBTQ activists. on social media on Sunday, Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said that the operation was called "My Family is Safe." He said the efforts had targeted 162 people, nine associations and 13 businesses suspected of involvement in prostitution and the production and dissemination of "obscene content," including to minors.

He noted that searches by the security forces had turned up digital materials, drugs and indications of foreign funding for groups that were encouraging homosexual activity and "indecency." "We are steadfastly continuing our efforts to protect our children, the institution of the family and the social order," he added. Mehmet Sinan Birdal, a political scientist at the Free University of Berlin, said the Turkish government was going after LGBTQ people because of the community's political opposition to Mr. Erdogan."Obscenity is a very vague term," he said. "I see this as a step to further pressure civil opposition." Those detained in the operation included a women's rights activist, a journalist who had written an article about gay rights in the ...