Operation “My Family is Safe” (Ailem Güvende) against the LGBTQ+ circles in Türkiye

As of the 12–13 September 2026 operation, it now reaches beyond the routine suppression of Pride marches to include criminal investigations, raids on civil-society organizations and venues, detentions, online censorship, and policies framed around “family” and “morality.” The latest September 2026 operation alone placed 162 people, nine associations, and 13 businesses under investigation across 15 provinces.[reuters][ilga-europe]

Latest escalation

On 12–13 September 2026, authorities launched what Justice Minister Akın Gürlek described as the “My Family is Safe” operation (Ailem Güvende). Its reported scope is unusually large:

Authorities have invoked allegations such as “obscenity,” prostitution, narcotics, and organised crime. But the selection of targets—including association offices, board members, auditors, activists’ homes, LGBTQ+ venues, and HIV-support-related groups—has led domestic and international rights organisations to characterize this as a politically coordinated assault on organised LGBTI+ civil society, rather than a narrowly bounded criminal investigation.[reuters][ilga-europe][bbc]

There is a reporting distinction worth keeping clear: 162 is the number of people reportedly subject to investigations/proceedings, not necessarily the number confirmed as physically detained at the outset. Initial official accounts cited 26 detentions in the Istanbul-linked operation and 21 in Ankara; activist and press accounts subsequently reported higher or evolving totals.[reuters][france24]

A longer trajectory

Istanbul Pride has been prohibited every year since 2015, and bans or heavy police interventions have increasingly spread to other cities. The state typically justifies them through public order, security, social harmony, “family structure,” or moral values.[reuters][hrw]

In 2025, the scale of restrictions documented by Kaos GL was already substantial:

• 313 violations of the right to liberty, including 299 detention decisions; Kaos GL said this was roughly 2.5 times the prior year’s level.[kaosgl1]
• 336 assembly-rights violations, covering Pride activities and other LGBTI+ events that were banned, prevented, dispersed, or made subject to investigation.[kaosgl1]
• During Istanbul’s 2025 Trans Pride and LGBTI+ Pride events, a joint monitoring report documented at least 95 detentions. It described police conduct including reverse handcuffing, physical and verbal abuse, deprivation of basic needs, and alleged strip searches; three people were placed in pre-trial detention, described by the monitors as a first in the Pride context.[en.tihv.org]
• In June 2025, contemporaneous reporting put detentions during the banned Istanbul Pride at at least 30, with other accounts citing more than 50.[reuters][dw]

So the 2026 raids represent a qualitative escalation: from blocking public demonstrations to targeting the organisational infrastructure that enables advocacy, legal support, health information, community spaces, and public communication.

Policy and legal pressure

The crackdown operates in a setting where same-sex relations are legal, but protections are thin and institutional recognition is absent. Same-sex marriage, registered partnerships, and equivalent cohabitation rights are not recognised.[ecoi]

In 2025, designated by the government as the “Year of the Family,” the Ministry of Family and Social Services reportedly instructed all 81 provincial directorates to avoid terms including “gender,” “sexual orientation,” and “gender identity,” presenting them as threats to family unity and society. Human Rights Watch linked this broader state discourse to measures undermining LGBT rights.[hrw]

This matters because it shifts pressure from episodic policing toward administrative normalization: language controls in public institutions, event prohibition, content restrictions, and possible legal mechanisms aimed at associations and expression. A late-2025 draft proposal drew warnings from Human Rights Watch that it could facilitate criminal charges against LGBT people—though a draft or proposal should not be confused with enacted law.[hrw]

International indicators

Comparative rights indicators show Türkiye near the bottom of Europe:

• ILGA-Europe’s 2026 Rainbow Map placed Türkiye 47th, with a score of 5%, third from the bottom among the countries ranked.[ilga-europe]
• The Council of Europe’s ECRI reported that LGBTI people are particularly exposed to hate-motivated violence; among 84 hate-crime cases reported by civil society to ODIHR in 2019, 57 concerned anti-LGBTI violence. It also noted the particular vulnerability of transgender people.[ecoi]