TURKEY: Riot Police Disperse Banned LGBT Pride Parade Marchers With Tear Gas, Rubber Bullets, Dogs [VIDEO]

July 2, 2018 Civil Rights, LGBT News

The Telegraph reports:

Gay rights groups and activists pressed ahead with the Istanbul Pride parade on Sunday despite Turkish authorities banning the event for a fourth year in a row. Around 1,000 people gathered near the city’s famous Istiklal Avenue and Taksim Square where organisers had wanted to originally hold the parade.

The activists unfolded a large rainbow flag while a press statement was read out amid heavy security in the area. But police then warned activists to disperse and used rubber bullets against some who tried to access Istiklal Avenue.

Amnesty International in Turkey later said on Twitter that 11 people had been detained as it called on police to “immediately” release them. The human rights group also said tear gas had been used against some activists.

The Jerusalem Post reports:



The march used to see tens of thousands of people parade down Istanbul’s main Istiklal street, but Sunday’s rally drew a much smaller crowd. “For the fourth year in a row, Turkish authorities have banned Istanbul Pride. The last time (2014) it went ahead seems like a lifetime ago,” one person tweeted.

Just a few hundred people gathered on one of Beyoglu district’s side streets, waving rainbow flags and shouting slogans. “100s of police throughout the Taksim area to stop the İstanbul Pride taking place but creative and courageous Pride participants sidestep the ban and read their press statement at a back street spontaneous protest,” one of the marchers published on Twitter.


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