Turkey: latest LGBT news/links

1. Gay refugees flee persecution but remain at risk (WorldFocus)

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) refugees are among the most vulnerable refugee groups in the world today, according to Neil Grungras, the executive director of Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration (ORAM).[...]

ORAM is currently providing legal representation to LGBT refugees in Turkey. The vast majority of them are Iranians who have fled execution or other severe punishment in Iran and Turkey happens to be their “country of first asylum.”

Worldfocus producer Gizem Yarbil interviews Neil Grungras about ORAM’s refugee clients in Turkey. A refugee and immigration advocate with more than 20 years of experience, he has worked extensively on behalf of vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers. [...]

Our clients in Turkey are predominantly sexual minorities - lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender individuals from Iran. The abuses they face almost always emanate from the Iranian authorities. These include harassment, arrest, interrogation, torture, beatings, and execution.

It is estimated that 4000 LGBTs have been executed in Iran since 1978. While no one can be certain of the exact figure, LGBTs live in constant fear of discovery or outing there.[...]

While the Turkish government does not persecute LGBTs, conditions in Turkey for these individuals are extremely harsh. Like other refugees there, our clients are typically not permitted to work, and have no access to normal health care, social assistance or housing. LGBTs in Turkey are also targeted with violence by local populations, and the authorities are often unable to extend them protection. Several of our clients in Turkey have been beaten and many have been threatened with violence. In some towns, the situation is so severe that some refugees fear venturing outside in daylight. During the past year, many of our clients have reported threats and actual violence against them. A few clients were beaten so seriously that they required hospitalization.

We recently detailed these and other abuses in our co-publication with Helsinki Citizens Assembly – Turkey titled Unsafe Haven: The Security Challenges Facing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Asylum Seekers in Turkey.[...]

2. Soul-Searching in Turkey After a Gay Man Is Killed (NY Times)
More about this case - see one of my earlier posts

3. Acvists target Turkish law (Pink Paper)

The Pink Life LGBTT Solidarity Association in Ankara, Turkey, and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission have teamed up to demand that Turkey's "Law of Misdemeanors" be rewritten to protect transgender people's rights to free expression, association and movement.

"In recent months," the groups said, "the harassment of transgender and transsexual persons in Turkey has intensified as police abuse the country's Law of Misdemeanors to legitimise daily fines, extortion, eviction, detention and police brutality. The law gives security forces tremendous leeway to punish any noise, disobedience and disturbance, with virtually no oversight in how the law is applied or recourse to those who are penalised."[...]

Was Ahmet Yildiz the victim of Turkey's first gay honour killing? (The Independent)

A chilling story from The Independent... This guy is perhaps the first known victim of gay honour killing in Turkey. "Ahmet Yildiz's crime, his friends say, was to admit openly to his family that he was gay."

Full story - The Independent, 19 July 2008; below are selected extracts:

In a corner of Istanbul today, the man who might be described as Turkey's gay poster boy will be buried – a victim, his friends believe, of the country's deepening friction between an increasingly liberal society and its entrenched conservative traditions.

Ahmet Yildiz, 26, a physics student who represented his country at an international gay gathering in San Francisco last year, was shot leaving a cafe near the Bosphorus strait this week. Fatally wounded, the student tried to flee the attackers in his car, but lost control, crashed at the side of the road and died shortly afterwards in hospital. His friends believe Mr Yildiz was the victim of the country's first gay honour killing.

"He fell victim to a war between old mentalities and growing civil liberties," says Sedef Cakmak, a friend and a member of the gay rights lobby group Lambda. "I feel helpless: we are trying to raise awareness of gay rights in this country, but the more visible we become, the more we open ourselves up to this sort of attack."

Turkey was all but closed to the world until 1980 but its desire for European Union membership has imposed strains on a society formerly kept on a tight leash. As the notion of rights for minorities such as women and gays has blossomed, the country's civil society becomes more vibrant by the day. But the changes have brought a backlash from traditionalist circles wedded to the old regime. [...]

"The media ignores or laughs off violence against gays," says Buse Kilickaya, a member of the gay lobbying group Pink Life, adding that Ahmet Yildiz's death "risks being swept under the carpet and forgotten like other cases in the past". Turkey has a history of honour killings. A government survey earlier this year estimated that one person every week dies in Istanbul as a result of honour killings. It put the nationwide death toll at 220 in 2007. In the majority of cases, the victims are women, but Mr Yildiz's friends suspect he may be the first recorded victim of a homosexual honour killing.

"We've been trying to contact Ahmet's family since Wednesday, to get them to take responsibility for the funeral," one of the victim's friends said yesterday, standing outside the morgue where his body has been for three days. "There's no answer, and I don't think they are going to come." The refusal of families to bury their relatives is common after honour-related murders. [...]

*source of photo - The Independent

Gay death in Iraq: a desperate call for help

I know first-hand accounts on the fate of LGBT Iraqis. One of my close friends is gay Iraqi and through him I met some other members of the community in London. This rare documentary contains real life examples of recent persecutions and murders of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Iraq. The situation described there is horrific, to say the least. They desperately need our support. They desperately need support and attention of international community and international gay community. "We feel deserted by the international gay community. Few people seem to care about our fate," - say LGBT Iraqis.

Here is just a small excerpt from this chilling documentary about 'proud' confessions of a father who killed his son:

"I found out he was gay. I killed my son and now I am considered a hero by my friends. I hanged him in my house, in front of his brother to give an example to him and to prevent him from doing the same."

He was charged for murder but soon was released after his lawyer explained why he committed his crime. Apparently, new Iraqi constitution states that a person who commits the crime to restore the honour of the family should be exempt from the prosecution.

This short film entitled "Queer Fear - Gay Life, Gay Death in Iraq". After watching it you will understand that "Gay Life" part of the title is pretty much irrelevant here... (thanks UKGayNews for the link)



Read UKGayNews article on how you can help LGBT Iraqis here