“Repression does not make a community disappear,” a representative from the Malta Gay Rights Movement said yesterday in front of the Turkish Embassy in Floriana.
MGRM organised the protest in solidarity with Turkey’s LGBT community following a sweeping crackdown by the Turkish authorities. Embassy officials asked the group to remain on the opposite side of the street, but protesters instead gathered directly outside the embassy carrying placards and rainbow flags.
Last week, Turkish police carried out sweeping raids across several cities and provinces targeting LGBT organisations, activists and community spaces. Human Rights Watch said at least 112 people were arrested during raids between 12 and 14 September, with 82 subsequently held in pre-trial detention. Activists, association officials and a journalist were among those detained.
The crackdown, officially called “My Family Is Safe”, has spread across 15 provinces and targets more than 160 people, nine associations and several businesses. Prosecutors have invoked charges ranging from obscenity and violations of association laws to organised crime and prostitution-related offences.
Authorities have also ordered the blocking of LGBT organisations’ websites and social-media accounts, while more than 100 people protesting the arrests in Istanbul were themselves detained. Amnesty International said that by 22 September at least 116 people had been arrested and 83 placed in pre-trial detention.
The campaign forms part of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s wider emphasis on what his government describes as traditional family values. Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly this week, Erdogan attacked what he called “global gender-neutralisation policies”, arguing that they threatened families and children.
MGRM protesters in Malta rejected that justification, arguing that the crackdown amounted to an attempt to intimidate and silence an already vulnerable community.
Newsroom
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