HEVİ LGBTI+ Association was among the organizations raided by police as part of the “Ailem Güvende” (My Family Is Safe) hate operations launched on September 12 against Turkey’s LGBTI+ community and associations. Prosecutors are now seeking to shut down the association.
The indictment prepared by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office cites the association’s LGBTI+ rights advocacy and its legal and psychological support services as grounds for seeking its closure. It also characterizes HEVİ’s work related to the Kurdish issue and its efforts to bring Kurdish LGBTI+ people together as “separatism.”
HEVİ LGBTI+: “We know that the conflict resolution and disarmament process, which has been underway in Turkey since 2024, can be advanced through demands for democratization and confronting the past. Our association has always been part of the struggle for peace and the demand for democratization; it has raised the voice of peace on every platform it has been part of. We do not accept the prosecution’s characterization of our policies on resolving the Kurdish issue as ‘separatism.’”
The indictment also seeks criminal penalties for five of the association’s founding members, three of whom are in pretrial detention.
HEVİ LGBTI+: “What is being targeted through our association and its founding members is the shared struggle for rights of Kurdish, refugee and LGBTI+ people from Turkey. Attempts to silence this legitimate voice through rhetoric reminiscent of the State Security Court (DGM) prosecutors of the 1990s are futile. As Kurdish lubunyas, refugee lubunyas and minority lubunyas, we will continue to fight this patriarchal, racist and phobic mindset.”
The first hearing in the case against HEVİ LGBTI+, which has been operating in Istanbul for 13 years, will be held on December 9 at 9:40 a.m. at the Istanbul 60th Criminal Court of First Instance.
