Istanbul Gay Pride: my diary of a powerful LGBT civil rights march

Last year Istanbul Pride was violently dispersed. This year it was banned altogether.

I dedicate this post to all the activists who struggle for human rights in Turkey. In solidarity with LGBT people in Istanbul.

I was lucky enough to be in Istanbul on 29 June 2014, with my Armenian friends. We witnessed and participated in perhaps the biggest and unfortunately the last peaceful Pride event happened there.

It was a great inspirational Pride event, a powerful civil rights march. Very political. Very colourful. Very diverse. Like in previous years, there was an abundance of posters in Armenian too.

There was police presence there too, but in contrast to last two years, police was there to protect, not to attack.

Participants of the march were quite critical against increasingly autocratic Erdogan rule. I witnessed quite a few anti-Erdogan messages, slogans and anti-Erdogan mocking during the march. No surprises that Turkey president Erdogan could not bear such displays of freedom, and started crackdown on Istanbul Pride using the full force of his repressive regime.

Below is my photo story from June 2014. I highly recommend Adrineh’s blog post reflecting the event too: A World of Pride or More Like Hüzün?

[...] I was lucky this year to be in Istanbul for gay pride. It was my first time in the city that is so close to Yerevan and yet so far. My girlfriend and I, along with a couple of our gay Armenian friends, planned a short, four-day visit not only to see the city, but also to be there for the pride march. Because unlike other cities where I’ve been that celebrate Pride (Toronto, Montréal, New York, Reykjavik, Dublin), it wasn’t a parade but a march. And there’s a clear difference between the two.

It reminded me of the origins of Pride, of what was fought for and what was gained. And it reminded me of how far we still have to go. […]

Just thousands and thousands of people of all stripes marching, holding signs in Armenian and Turkish (probably in Kurdish too) and so many rainbow flags. […]

And the music that stayed with me the most was the beat of the drums. Men and woman playing various types of drums at different points in the march. This is the sound of a struggle, and this is how you know that what we saw, what we were swept up in (my gay Armenian friends and I) was a march for human rights. [...]

It is therefore with great sadness I note how quickly and to what a devastating effect the situation with human rights has been deteriorated in Turkey, with each passing day under the Erdogan rule.

And after-party:

***
See also Rainbow Istanbul, with Armenian touch

Armenian parents who support their LGBT children after coming out

I wish one day we will have similar to Istanbul’s LISTAG (Families of LGBT in Istanbul) organisation in Armenia and Diaspora, and we will see parents of LGBT Armenians publicly sharing their personal stories, challenging prevalent homophobic status quo and providing support to family and friends of other LGBT individuals.

In the meantime, great to read about Armenian parents who support their children after coming out. I want to hear and read more such stories which will help and inspire others.

This line sums up the situation perfectly: “It was not Ara’s sexual orientation that his mother was concerned about when he came out to her at the age of 21, but rather the very homophobic society they lived in.” […] Says Ara's mother: “support is the biggest gift a parent can give to their child.”

Արայի մայրն իմանալով, որ որդին գեյ է անհանգստացել էր ոչ թե որդու սեռական կողմնորոշումից, այլ որ զավակն ապրում է չափազանց հոմոֆոբ հասարակությունում, ինչը կարող է վնասել իր տղային: «Աջակցել, աջակցել, աջակցել, աջակցել, աջակցել, աջակցել»,- ասում է Արայի մայրը, -«աջակցությունն ամենամեծ նվերն է, որ ծնողը կարող է տալ իր երեխային»:

Read stories of David, Diana and Ara and their accepting parents in As You magazine (Armenian, English):

Turkey’s Armenian MP Garo Paylan: I want “new world” founded on equality

We need more MPs like Garo Paylan both in Turkey and Armenia, and beyond. The world, and the world of politics, will be a better place with them.

Highly recommend this interview by Armenian Weekly’s Nanore Barsoumian with the newly elected ethnic Armenian MP of the Turkey parliament from progressive LGBT-friendly HDP party.

*Garo Paylan (Photo: Nanore Barsoumian)

Selected extracts below /emphasis mine/:

“Three weeks after his election into Turkey’s Parliament on the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) list, Garo Paylan spoke to the Armenian Weekly about his path to parliament, and the challenges of being an Armenian in Turkey’s political scene.

During the interview conducted in Istanbul, Paylan also discussed issues that are close to his heart, including the HDP’s politics and commitment to creating what he terms a “new world” founded on equality.”

Says Garo Paylan: “Turkish citizens want the change—so they will vote for whoever speaks the new language for them. We wanted equality, and they heard us. It’s the radical democrats that for the first time are offering equality. We are radical democrats and we have everyone sitting at our table. This is why we have to struggle for LGBT rights, for the Armenians, the Kurds, and the Alevis. We have to offer equality to every identity.

Of course, we had some concerns. For instance, we were concerned that people were not ready to hear about the Armenian Genocide. Yet, we are vocal about the Armenian Genocide. We also support LGBT rights, and equality between men and women—everything that is considered radical about democracy. This is about [creating] a new world.”

“The AKP thought that insulting Armenians will gain them the Muslim votes, but it didn’t work. They tried to spotlight the fact that we had an LGBT candidate, thinking that it would affect the conservative vote, but it didn’t. There were other similar attempts, but they also failed. This is important. Our words won. We trust our words. This is what’s most important.”

Joint statement by Armenian and Turkish LGBT groups re centenary of the Armenian Genocide

Kudos to the signatories of this statement - PINK Armenia and Kaos GL. Great example of solidarity between Armenian and Turkish LGBT groups.

Pink Armenia and Kaos GL made a joint statement to mark the centenary of the Armenian Genocide, commemorating those killed, and underlined that they will fight against homophobia, transphobia, racism and nationalism together. 

*Armenian version 
*Turkish version

One hundred years ago, a huge crime was committed on the land that we have been living together, one unpardonable, irreversible crime, which can by no means be compensated. In order to shatter Armenian people, their culture, social and economical set up into pieces Great Crime/Meds Yeghern caused pains that cannot be located in the language of cold statistics. In the process of massacre, Assyrian and Greek people in Turkey had also been the target of systematic extermination policies. We still witness the effects of the unpardonable Armenian Genocide that had been initiated by Ottoman Empire.

We, as LGBT organizations struggling against homophobia and transphobia in Armenia and Turkey, call both LGBT and overall public societies to confront with what had been lived. We recapitulate our call for confrontation with genocide and protect our lives dimmed by hands of nationalism and state policies. As well as being against homophobia and transphobia, struggling against racist, nationalist and sexist policies in our region, We, as Pink Armenia and Kaos GL, commemorate everyone killed a hundred years ago and express once again that we share the painful memoirs and are in solidarity with the Armenian population scattered all over the world.

Today, struggling against racist and nationalist ideologies of homophobia and transphobia, which have intertwined with racism and nationalism both in civil society and public space all throughout the countries in our region including Turkey and Armenia that resulted in genocide is more important than ever. State-handedly institutionalized racist and nationalist discourses turn borders of our countries into impassable borders in between communities. The way to pass beyond the intercommunal borders is to act with solidarity via creating horizontal networks. Only our struggle will make it possible to get rid of abstract discourses of equality, justice and freedom, and to put our struggle at the center of our lives.

Armenian Genocide is a source of shame for all humanity. This shame and the scares of this massacre left us with big questions to answer. Assassinated by the people of 1915 mentality, the question posed by Hrant Dink, the Chief Editor of Agos Journal, is still waiting unanswered:

“Are we to act just like the responsible persons of the past extreme catastrophe or shall we take our lessons from past errors and write the new pages like civilized human beings?”

We, as Pink Armenia and Kaos GL, will strive to find answers to this question through our struggle. The way to be liberated with the ‘rainbow’ is through giving voice to the truths that have been overshadowed by nationalism.

PINK Armenia & Kaos GL

Rainbow Istanbul, with Armenian touch

Istanbul is such a contradictory city. Being part of Turkey where homophobia, hate crime and other (not only LGBT-related) human rights violations are widespread, while having openly rainbow signs, not to mention the annual gay pride march. Interlinked signs of modernity and conservatism, all in one place, a step away from each other.

When in Istanbul last June to participate in a gay pride march and to meet friends, I started noticing rainbow flags and rainbow signs in various parts of the city, and decided to make pictures of them whenever I notice.

These pics are made in the streets of Istanbul, when passing by stores, shops, bars, visiting art galleries or using metro, in mainly unexpected places.

One of the interesting  - but expected, as I learned about it before traveling to Istanbul - art related rainbow displays came in a form of “Rainbow” installation at the Istanbul Modern by Turkish-Armenian artist Sarkis Zabunyan, better known as Sarkis. While not directly LGBT-linked, I view it as part of the overall experience.

[…] the installation “Rainbow” was produced in neon and measures 7.5 meters in height and 15 meters in width. Showing a rainbow in the process of forming, the installation “Rainbow” will illuminate art and museum visitors for 365 days. “Rainbow” reminds us of the states of becoming of art as a never-ending field of thought and action. It symbolizes the endless rhythm, excitement, and joys of life. 

Sarkis defines his installation as a “rainbow gaining momentum toward the Big Bang” and adds: “Rainbow should be regarded as a miracle. Art is always about new beginnings; there are references, but in the process of creating, all of these references disappear, giving way to fresh ideas.”