Istanbul Police Attack Pride Marchers With Tear Gas And Rubber Bullets

[LebaneseDude 6,146]

Via The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/19/police-use-teargas-against-lgbt-activists-in-istanbul

Riot police have fired teargas and rubber pellets to disperse an LBGT march in Istanbul that had been banned after ultranationalists said “degenerates” could not demonstrate.

Hundreds of riot police cordoned off Taksim Square in the heart of the city to prevent the Trans Pride rally taking place during Ramadan.

Authorities have banned transgender and gay pride marches this month, which coincides with the period of fasting for Muslims, citing security concerns after warnings against any such events taking place in Turkey.

Although the Turkish republic is constitutionally secular, the vast majority of the population is Muslim.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who became president in 2014 after 11 years as prime minister, has steadily boosted the power of the head of state’s office with appeals to conservative, nationalist and religious-minded Turks.

This has effectively shifted Turkey from a parliamentary to a presidential system, even before Erdoğan seeks to amend the constitution along such lines through a referendum.

 

[LebaneseDude 6,146]

Fascinating to see a country regress so quickly.

RIP secular Turkey. The Ottoman Empire its LG5 era approaches.

[Guest]

Again? They did that last year as well and a friend of mine got seriously injured. So sad to see a nation regress. 

[vertigostick 2,527]

Poor backward country. It must be a mess living in such an environment, would never ever visit that place.

Bless them, let's hope they'll see the light someday and move on from the Middle Age... 

[SissyFromSpace 20,884]

This happens every year. :[

[Manul 7,377]

Still stuck in the middle age like most (if not all) muslim countries, I see. 

[Shadow 6,697]

What happened to Turkey? Didn't they almost become part of the EU? Is the Erdogan leadership alone pushing Turkey's regression or are they being influenced by outside forces?

[En_Sabah_Nur 9,366]

33 minutes ago, Love Drought said:

Still stuck in the middle age like most (if not all) muslim countries, I see. 

MTE ^^

 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Shadow said:

What happened to Turkey? Didn't they almost become part of the EU? Is the Erdogan leadership alone pushing Turkey's regression or are they being influenced by outside forces?

It's primarily Erdogan's leadership. Things started to change drastically once he became president. They used to be on the track of getting their politics matched to European standards, but now they insist on keeping it their way (which is a tussle between an overbearing military and Islamists of varying hues).