Türkiye: Free the jailed LGBT+ activists
Campaign content
On the night of September 12, Turkish police broke into the homes of people who run LGBT+ organizations and arrested them while they slept. What began as raids on one organization has grown into a crackdown across five provinces: at least 117 people have now been detained in Ankara, Istanbul, Mersin, Izmir and Aydın, and 83 have been arrested and placed in pre-trial detention. Among those arrested are 25 LGBT+ rights defenders – founders, board members, and one journalist – now facing charges of "obscenity" and violating Türkiye's Law on Associations, simply for running websites, keeping financial records, and supporting their communities. The Minister of Justice has hinted that their funding is suspect, but the government's own financial crimes review found it was legally received and properly declared.
The raids came hours after a court blocked these organizations' websites and social media, cutting off how they warn their community about danger. A government circular issued the next day expanded "morality" investigations to cover anything that might encourage children toward "genderlessness" – opening the door to target LGBT+ education, health support, and advocacy of any kind. Authorities are now moving to dissolve four of the targeted associations. Turkish officials, including the Minister of Justice, have publicly smeared the people they've detained, and with pro-government media joining in, the 24 LGBT+ defenders still behind bars are in real danger inside Turkish prisons. This isn't really about protecting families. It's a coordinated attempt to make it impossible for LGBT+ organizations to exist in Türkiye, and other governments are watching to see if it works.
Add your name and tell Turkish authorities: release the LGBT+ defenders detained for their human rights work, guarantee their safety in detention, drop the plans to dissolve their organizations, and stop treating LGBT+ organizing as a crime.
This campaign is run in conjunction with the Guardians of Equality Movement (GEM)
We have revised this petition to reflect the latest confirmed details of the crackdown. We've updated the number of people detained and arrested, and added the names of the organizations targeted in the raids. Our demands to Turkish authorities, the EU, the Council of Europe and UN human rights bodies are unchanged. Signatures collected before this date were given to the earlier version.
Since September 12, 2026, at least 117 people connected to Türkiye's LGBT+ organizations have been detained in coordinated raids across five provinces – Ankara, Istanbul, Mersin, Izmir and Aydın – under an operation named "My Family Is Safe." Among them are 44 LGBT+ rights defenders. Judicial proceedings concluded across all five provinces on the night of September 16-17: 83 people were arrested and placed in pre-trial detention, while others were released under judicial supervision or for health and age reasons.
Among those arrested are 25 LGBT+ rights defenders, including founders and board members of LGBT+ and HIV organizations and one journalist. Twenty-four remain in prison. The operation targeted seven LGBT+ associations (Kaos GL in Ankara; SPoD, Lambdaistanbul, LİSTAG, and HEVİ in Istanbul; and Muamma and 7 Renk in Mersin) and two HIV organizations in Istanbul, Pozitif Yaşam and Pozitif-iz. Board members' homes were raided, the offices of nine associations were searched, and prosecutors will seek to dissolve SPoD, Lambdaistanbul, LİSTAG, and HEVİ.
The charges, including "obscenity" and violations of the Law on Associations, are being applied to ordinary work: publishing online, managing social media accounts, supporting community members. These detentions follow court orders blocking 419 social media accounts, including those of the targeted organizations, journalists, and human rights groups, and were followed by a Ministry of Justice circular expanding "public morality" enforcement to cover activities said to encourage "genderlessness" among children. Minister of Justice Akın Gürlek and pro-government media have publicly smeared those detained, putting their safety in prison at serious risk. At least 125 protesters were themselves detained, including lawyers and journalists. All have since been released.
Türkiye is bound by its Constitution and ratified treaties to protect freedom of association, expression and a fair legal process, including access to a lawyer of one's choosing and clear grounds for detention or search.
To the Turkish authorities, we ask you to:
- Release immediately and unconditionally everyone detained solely for their work with LGBT+ organizations or human rights defense.
- Guarantee every detained person confidential access to a lawyer of their choice and clear, individualized grounds for their detention.
- Guarantee the safety of everyone in detention, and publicly repudiate official statements and media coverage that stigmatize LGBT+ people in custody.
- Lift the block on the websites and social media named in this operation, drop the requests to close the targeted associations, and end the use of "public morality" and "family protection" language to justify investigating lawful civil society work.
To the EU, the Council of Europe and UN human rights bodies, we ask you to:
- Raise this directly with Turkish authorities, publicly and through diplomatic channels, and keep the treatment of human rights defenders in Türkiye on the international agenda until those detained are released.
Türkiye's own laws recognize the right of associations to organize and receive lawful funding. Upholding that right is what the rule of law requires.
Oct. 2, 2026
The crackdown continues – and so does the pushback
Oct. 2, 2026
The crackdown continues – and so does the pushback
The crackdown hasn't stopped, but neither has the pushback. Police raided the homes of trans women on Bayram Street in Istanbul and detained 12 of them, who were later released. In Mersin, lawyers found 18 people held in a cell with eight beds, detainees denied hormone treatment and other medicine, and people living with HIV kept in solitary confinement. At least 24 LGBT+ rights defenders are still in prison, and none of them has been convicted of anything. A court has ordered the closure of the news site T24 over its LGBT+ reporting, and singer Mabel Matiz faces up to three years in prison for a video of two fully clothed men dancing. But there's a first sign that pressure is working: a lawyer arrested in the raids and all 125 people detained for protesting have been freed. Justice Minister Akın Gürlek is responsible for the safety of everyone in Turkey's prisons. Share this petition so authorities know people are watching.
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