The 10th Istanbul Trans Pride March briefly assembled on Sunday, June 23rd, despite heavy government pressure. The Turkish government imposed a lockdown on major areas and halted public transportation to prevent the march, leading to most planned gatherings failing to materialize. A dozen individuals appeared in a flash mob-like gathering at a previously unannounced location in an effort to evade the police.
In a show of defiance amidst stringent government measures, the 10th Istanbul Trans Pride March made a brief and small showing on Sunday. Despite heavy government pressure, a small group managed to gather and release a video. Trans pride marches across Turkey are held separately and typically a week ahead of the Gay Pride march as the Trans committee saw fit to splinter from the larger group some years ago in an effort to increase trans visibility.
The Turkish government, in a bid to prevent the march, imposed a lockdown on major areas of Istanbul, particularly the Taksim district, which has long been a symbol of civil disobedience in Turkey. Authorities temporarily halted metro services and other forms of public transportation leading to Taksim Square, creating significant obstacles for would-be participants as well as shoppers and sightseers alike. Demonstrations in Taksim Square have been heavily regulated and prevented where possible, ever since the 2013 Gezi protests, which are considered the first legitimate challenge to the ruling government’s authority.
Earlier in the day, the Istanbul trans community posted their march times and locations on social media, but the planned gatherings failed to materialize due to heavy police presence in major districts. A brief march of about a dozen individuals took place in the Bomonti neighborhood, marking the only significant congregation of the day. Additionally, a trans flag was hung on a bridge in the Haliç neighborhood. Arrests and detentions began early in the day as the police detained an unknown number of people, some solely based on suspicion according to information obtained by Medyascope.
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The complex political landscape of Turkey has made pride marches nearly impossible. While the left-leaning opposition party, CHP, controls the Istanbul municipality, the provincial governor remains an appointee of the central government, headed by the long-serving conservative President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who made anti-LGBT sentiments a key platform during the 2023 general elections. While major CHP party figures have offered some support to the LGBT community in Turkey in the past, opposition parties have not released a public statement concerning the Trans Pride march as of the writing of this article, offering neither support nor condemnation.
Turkey is ranked among the worst in Europe for LGBTI+ rights by the advocacy group ILGA-Europe, scoring a mere 4.75%, down from 14.15% in 2013 and only behind Russia in its rights score.
