It’s no secret Turkey’s leadership is similar to that of Poland, Hungary, Russia (and much more), all of whose leadership is borderline fascist, and operate as a “Totalitarian Democracy“. As such, bigotry is both inherent and encouraged by these states, and under its umbrella of hatred, it undoubtedly includes homophobia. Poland; known for its “LGBTQ+ free zones”; Hungary, whose President belives homosexuals are predating on childen and is doing as much as possible to pass legislation to strip away the rights of its LGBTQ+ citizens, who already have little rights as is.
Meanwhile, Turkey is acting as if Trump is their president. By this, I mean that their president, Erdogan, and his political shit birds, are publicly embarrassing themselves with their ignorant and hateful words. They have identified peaceful LGBTQ+ protesters as their enemies. Four protesters have been arrested by state police at a Muslim ‘holy site’, and are accused for “inciting hatred in the population”. The President himself called these individuals “four LGBT freaks”, and has even labeled them as terrorists. Because exercising free speech to an oppressive and bigoted government that is using religion to justify its hatred is divisive and terrorism…
What ignited these protests was the President’s decision to appoint a personal and political friend as [di]rector of an university. Of course, the man has absolutely no relevant experience to his new position (sound familiar?), and being an ally to the President, he too is a homophobe piece of shit. This obviously didn’t sit well with students; 159 were arrested merely for displaying their flag and for insulting Islam. Fun fact: Turkey’s constitution states that it is secular; public officials and their political allies have no place perpetuating bigotry under the name of any religion, but since when has that stopped anyone?