Religious Left

Amnesty International A local court in Istanbul ordered the closure of the Turkish lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender solidarity organization, Lambda Istanbul. The court ruled on May 29 in favor of a complaint by the Istanbul Governor's Office that Lambda Istanbul's objectives were against Turkish "moral values and family structure". An appeal challenging this ruling is currently pending. Amnesty International considers that closure of or attempts to close organizations on the basis of advocating for the rights of persons with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities violate the right to freedom of association, and are discriminatory. Amnesty International is calling on people to write to Besir Atalay , the Minister of Interior.

AFP ISTANBUL (AFP) — A leading Turkish homosexual rights lobby group vowed Friday to fight a court ruling that ordered its closure after prosecutors accused it of breaching morality and family norms. "This is a mistake and we hope that the Appeals Court will correct it," group lawyer Firat Soyle told AFP. He pointed at a 2005 decision by an Ankara prosecutor who threw out a similar application against another gay rights advocacy group, KAOS-GL, saying that homosexuality does not amount to immorality. full article