On 20 May, Boğaziçi university students in Turkey held a pride march which was quickly shut down by police. The event was organised by the Boğaziçi university LGBTIA+ Studies Club; a group which was disbanded by university officials last year.
Footage from the march shows students waving pride flags and calling for tolerance. They attempted to march towards the former BÜLGBTİA+ club room but were faced with campus security and riot police, who formed a blockade around marchers with shields and riot gear.
Amnesty Turkey condemned the actions of the riot police on Twitter, where they wrote that marchers were faced with ‘unlawful use of force.’ They stated that footage shows the police ‘violating the prohibition of ill-treatment,’ which included a police officer allegedly hitting someone’s head against a bus. Amnesty Turkey called for the immediate release of those detained at the march, and said:
‘Perpetrators of human rights violations and abuses including ill-treatment, discrimination of the LGBTI+ and violation of the right to peaceful protest must be identified and investigated.’
IGLA Europe, an organisation working for LGBT equality and human rights, also spoke out about the ‘violent crackdown’ on the protest, which ‘violates LGBTI students’ right to freedom of assembly and expression.
One of the students, who witnessed the detention of other marchers, told Civic Space Studies that they saw ‘too many’ police encircling the group of marchers. They alleged:
‘They followed us and we changed our direction. When we arrived at the club room of our closed club BULGBTI+, they surrounded us. They opened a corridor for us and started violent detention without any prior warnings. Because of our identity, we were dragged along the ground and subjected to violence.’
According to the outlet, 70 students were detained by police at the march.