Police ‘violently arrest 370 people’ trying to attend banned Istanbul Pride

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Turkish police blocked, assaulted and arrested hundreds of people trying to attend Istanbul’s annual Pride march.

Police in riot gear cracked down on Pride celebrations on Sunday (26 June), after politician announced on 20 June they were banning all Pride-related events for a week.

In images circulating on social media, police can be seen in full riot gear while metal fences cordon off streets in and surrounding Taksim Square in Istanbul. To try to prevent the march, metro services were shut down for several hours.

Kaos GL, one of the largest LGBT+ rights groups in Turkey, said that arrests started to be made prior to the intended 5pm march start.

Riot police begun to enter bars and other local venues, allegedly arresting people “at random”.

Police attacking #IzmirPride in huge numbers @InterPride @amnesty @ILGAEurope @ILGAWORLD @EuroPride @LdnGMC @PinkNews @AmnestyUK_LGBTI @GeneveLgbti @PeterTatchell @PrideInLondon https://t.co/ukXjHuiIV5

— chris J (@uxibnny) June 26, 2022

Before the march’s planned start it was reported that 52 had been detained. Kaos GL said on Monday (27 June) that in total, 373 people were arrested and released after a night in custody.

Neither the police or the governor’s office has given any official numbers regarding the arrests.

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According to AFP journalists, four busloads of detained protesters were taken away. Among them was the outlet’s chief photographer, Bulent Kilic; AFP journalists reporting from the march said that police tried to prevent them from filming any arrests.

'Police attacked İstanbul LGBTI+ Pride March this year as well. (…) LGBTI+s marched to Cihangir by crossing over police attack. 373 LGBTI+ activists were detained and they were released after a night at custody.’ #IstanbulPride