Erdogan: LGBTQIA+ is a threat aimed at weakening family, Islamic values
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan one more time targeted LGBTQIA+ community, describing them as a threat for the family institution and Islamic values.
"The imposition of the LGBT that has become a global tool of dictation, is another threat aimed at weakening both the institution of the family and the Islamic values," Erdogan said during a speech addressing a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul on Monday.
Blaming the Western countries of dictating their own way of life on others, “No matter what garish package you put it in,” it is to “resurrect the spirit of the medieval inquisition,” Arti Gercek cited Erdogan as saying.
Erdoğan, İslam İşbirliği Teşkilatı toplantısında konuştu:
— artıgerçek (@artigercek) November 28, 2022
"Küresel bir dikta aracı halini alan LGBT dayatması da hem aile kurumunu hem de İslami değerleri zayıflatmayı amaçlayan bir diğer tehdittir" https://t.co/1Pc3xaCmwj pic.twitter.com/xjib2tdMKm
Homosexuality has never been criminalised under modern Turkey, but country’s Islamist government led by Erdogan banned several LGBTQIA+ events since mid-2010s.
Erdogan last year pulled Turkey out of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention, after pro-government conservative and Islamist groups argued that it undermined Turkish family values and promoted homosexuality.
While speaking during a provincial congress for his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) last year, Erdogan dismissed the existence of the LGBTQIA+ community, claiming that “There is no such thing as LGBT”.
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, another top politician in Ankara also labelled the community of being “deviants” after they played an important role in demonstrations against Erdogan’s appointing an AKP loyalist as the rector of Bogazici University.
