Turkish police stop Istanbul gay pride event with tear gas and plastic bullets



ISTANBUL: -- Turkish police used tear gas and plastic bullets to disperse demonstrators who gathered for a gay pride rally in Istanbul in defiance of a government ban.

The city’s governor had cited security concerns in preventing two annual parades from happening this year.

Earlier this week an ultra-nationalist youth group vowed to stop the march if it went ahead, calling the event immoral.

Dozens of people gathered in support of the LGBT parade just off a major commercial street.

Police called on them to disperse and prevented activists from marching or making statements.

On Friday Istanbul’s authorities said a parade planned for next week would be banned.

Security is tight after several bombings in recent months, blamed on Kurdish militants and the self-styled Islamic State group.

But organisers denounced the ban as a “flagrant violation of the constitution and the law”. Last year police fired water cannon at a gay pride event.

There was a small homophobic protest on Sunday. Anti-gay sentiment remains widespread in Turkey although homosexuality is not a crime.

-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2016-06-20

...and some people/countries want them in the EU!

stopped because of security concerns. concerns the gays would be shot in the head (rubber bullets can be fatal) by the police. get with the programme you turkies, being gay is A OK. they will have to let turkey into the EU soon to replace the ones leaving.

What will Merkel do? Whimper, whine and roll over again? You betcha!!!!

Edited June 20, 201610 yr by MockingJay

"Last year police fired water cannon at a gay pride event."

Turkish police fire pepper spray at gay pride parade

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/28/world/turkey-pride-parade-lgbt-violence/

Erdogan is a regressive conservative and he is trying to drag a progressive and fun loving people (who mainly live in the bigger cities) back to the Turkish equivalent of good ol' boy land.

This is the intolerant and repressive country (98 percent Muslim) which Cameron and the EU are recommending for "accelerated" membership of the EU!

I wouldn't blame any of the minority gay community from wishing to escape to an LGBT paradise like the UK (assuming we're still in the EU, of course). I'd just rather they didn't bring their 78 million fellow countrymen and women with them.

Edited June 20, 201610 yr by Krataiboy

Good. You don't see people having heterosexual-pride parades..what gives them the right to boast their preference to everyone?

Aren't these the same people who were complaining that Israel was getting unintended good PR by allowing gays to gather and parade there?

Turkey is like the battleground for Eastern culture meets Western culture...

Must be difficult to live there...

Related news story from a couple of days ago involving further intolerance in Turkey.
A mob of 20 Islamist extremists attacked guests at a Radiohead record store party for drinking during the holy month of Ramadan in Istanbul.
Continued: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3648114/Shocking-video-shows-mob-20-Islamist-extremists-attacking-guests-Radiohead-party-drinking-holy-month-Ramadan-Turkey.html

Edited June 20, 201610 yr by katana

Good. You don't see people having heterosexual-pride parades..what gives them the right to boast their preference to everyone?

Why don't you organise your own hetero pride event if you are feeling left out?

What gives them the right to boast their preferences? Maybe freedom of speech?

Good. You don't see people having heterosexual-pride parades..what gives them the right to boast their preference to everyone?

would hetros be shot at and pepper sprayed if they did have a march? hard to believe there are homophobes still out there hanging onto the old ways. freedom 4 the gays to live life like the rest of us.

When they used the water canons last year...

quite funny to read all the negative stuff about ladyboys here but see support for the wider gay community.

Erdogan is a regressive conservative and he is trying to drag a progressive and fun loving people (who mainly live in the bigger cities) back to the Turkish equivalent of good ol' boy land.

Turkey is neither progressive, nor a fun loving people. Rural women are still treated as chattel to be beaten, raped and abused. And Turkey is still very much a divided country. It's rural areas are poor and dominated by religious indoctrination schools. Yes, the big cities are modern and have Turkey's educated and secular classes. However, the majority of the population do not live in those big cities they live in crap holes like Anatolia.