Turkish police intervene in women’s march of university students over LGBTI+ banner

Turkish police have intervened in the Istanbul University students’ march held for International Women’s Day allegedly over a banner reading “LGBTIQ+,” and detained many of them.

Friday March 08 2024 12:00 am

Duvar English

Istanbul police on March 7 intervened in the Istanbul University students’ march held for International Women's Day, Gerçek Gündem reported.

Accordingly, a large number of police teams deployed at the university before the march.

Students who wanted to march from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences to the main gate of Beyazıt Campus faced police intervention allegedly over a banner reading “LGBTIQ+”.

The police prevented the students from marching out of the faculty gate and detained many of them.

The International Women's Day marches, held on March 8, have been facing severe police backlash for years in Turkey, yet the strict measures have not prevented women from taking to the streets to protest against the violence against women and LGBTI+ community in the country.

Turkey has made moves in recent years to lessen protections for women. In July 2021, the country formally withdrew from the Istanbul Convention (the Council of Europe’s Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence), a move that advocacy groups say was a major setback for women in the country. Turkey was the first country to sign the Convention back in 2011.

Some 315 women were murdered by men in 2023 in Turkey, while 248 women were found dead under suspicious circumstances over the same period, according to the We Will Stop Femicides Platform.