LGBTI protest against hate crimes in Turkey’s Aegean province

İZMİR – Doğan News Agency

DHA Photo

A group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) protesters marched on May 3 in Turkey’s Aegean province of İzmir, after four transgender women were recently the targets of violence. 

Around 100 people in İzmir protested the incidents in the Istanbul, İzmir and Kocaeli provinces that took place on the night of May 2. 

Gamze Yıldırım, the spokesperson for the group, said violence against LGBTI citizens had political roots. 

“We know that hate attacks [against LGBTI members] have a political base. The state that wants to introduce transgender-only prisons should instead take necessary precautions against hate attacks,” Yıldırım said. 

On the night of May 2, a transgender friend of the protesters, who goes by the nickname “Gülşen,” was stabbed by her client and was still in critical condition after her friends rushed her to hospital in İzmir, she added. On the same night, unknown assailants in Istanbul shot another transgender person, who is now in a stable condition after treatment at hospital. 

Yıldırım said another transphobic attack took place in İzmir, where a transgender woman, going by the name “Rüya,” was stabbed by unknown assailants, while a fourth transgender woman was injured in the western province of Kocaeli. 

All these incidents “prove that transphobic violence is everywhere,” Yıldırım said. 

“The heterosexual patriarchal mentality that ignores LGBTI people is being used everyday by the state. LGBTI and sex workers, who are the victims of this mentality, are struggling for their lives every day,” she added.