ISTANBUL: Several hundred people briefly participated in a LGBTQ Pride march Sunday in Istanbul that had been banned by local authorities, leading to some arrests, according to a reporter.

Waving rainbow flags and chanting various slogans, demonstrators managed to march for about ten minutes along Baghdad Avenue, a major artery on the Asian side of Turkiye’s largest city, before dispersing when police intervened. Several were arrested, a video reporter saw.

The annual Pride march has been banned in Istanbul every year since 2015, and authorities had denounced appeals to protest from “illegal groups”. On the European side of Istanbul, police closed off Taksim Square, a traditional gathering point for protests, while police were out in force to filter access to the pedestrian shopping Istiklal Avenue, another reporter observed. Several metro stations in the area were closed.

Homosexuality isn’t illegal in Turkiye, but homophobia is common all the way up to the top of the state, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan regularly calls LGBTQ people “perverts” and accuses them of threatening traditional families.

Until 2014, Istanbul, Turkiye’s economic and cultural capital, saw tens of thousands of participants in Pride marches.

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2024