LGBTIQ persons targeted and arrested during student protests

January-February 2021: Hundreds of student protesters were arrested for opposing the appointment of a rector to Bogazici University by President Erdogan, including a crackdown on LGBT persons who were greatly involved in the protests. The rector had previously expressed what the students deemed to be anti-LGBT views online. Students displayed a poster depicting the Kaaba with LGBT flags on 29 January, which resulted in specific targeting of LGBT students. Four students – two who featured online with the poster in question, along with two others assumed to be active in LGBT organising on campus – were arrested and placed under investigation on the charge of “provoking hatred or hostility.” Bogazici University’s LGBT student club was subsequently closed down by the rector. For more information and details, see this publication by Human Rights Watch.

See Human Rights Watch, February 2021; Human Rights Watch, February 2021 and France24, February 2021.