The Left and Greens in the Bundestag are calling on the federal government to respond clearly to the raids and arrests targeting Turkey’s queer community. “Under the cynically framed pretext of ‘protecting families and children’, queer people and their organizations are being criminalized and intimidated,” said Maik Brückner and Cansu Özdemir of The Left. “And Foreign Minister Wadephul? Silent. When it comes to their foreign-policy interests, the government treats Erdoğan as an indispensable partner. When his state pursues queer people, it wants to look the other way,” charged the queer-policy spokesperson and the foreign-policy spokesperson for the Left parliamentary group.
Berlin must press for the release of detainees
The government must publicly condemn this repression, “demand the release of all those detained solely for their activism in dealings with Ankara, and call an end to the attacks on queer organizations,” Brückner and Özdemir continued. “People who are persecuted because of their sexual orientation or gender identity must find protection in Germany. Human rights are non-negotiable — even if defending them conflicts with the government’s foreign-policy interests.”
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Also from the Greens came criticism: The government should not turn a blind eye to the violence—just as the EU Commission should not—demanded Nyke Slawik, the Greens’ queer-policy spokesperson in the Bundestag. “Erdoğan is trying to distract from his waning popularity with this PR stunt by presenting himself as a strongman and conjuring supposedly traditional values. Democracy, the rule of law, and human rights are paying the price once again,” Slawik added.
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The Turkish authorities had carried out nationwide raids on queer organizations or venues over the weekend (TheColu.mn reported). The operation was titled “My Family is Safe.” On Monday and Tuesday, demonstrations against the wave of arrests were also dispersed (TheColu.mn reported). The Council of Europe and the European Commission had already criticized the developments (TheColu.mn reported). The German government, however, refrained from openly criticizing. (dk)
