Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, issued a statement on 15 September 2026 on the operations against LGBTI civil society in Türkiye. He said he was concerned by reports of arrests, raids and the blocking of websites and social media accounts targeting LGBTI civil society and human rights defenders across the country.

He called on the Turkish authorities to release anyone detained for engaging in human rights or civil society work, to guarantee due process including effective access to legal assistance, judicial review and protection from ill-treatment, and to ensure that restrictions and criminal proceedings respect legality, necessity, proportionality and the presumption of innocence.

He said that advocacy for equality and non-discrimination is protected expression and association under the Convention, and that the European Court of Human Rights has made clear that references to family values or the protection of children cannot by themselves justify restricting rights.

He also raised two procedural concerns: that defence lawyers’ access to investigation files has been restricted, and that suspects are being required to retain separate lawyers without concrete or individualised evidence of a conflict of interest. He said such measures may undermine effective access to legal assistance and impair the right to a fair trial.

He added that criminal investigations and detentions must rest on individualised evidence of a recognised offence, rather than on a person’s identity, association, advocacy, peaceful activism or receipt of lawful funding. Justice Minister Akın Gürlek had cited investigations into funding received by LGBTI organisations from foreign and public sources.

In the day following the statement, Turkish courts remanded at least 60 people.

In Ankara, 13 of 21 detainees were remanded. Five trans women were remanded during the day, followed by the journalist Tuğba Tekerek and seven principal members of the management and audit boards of Kaos GL. The Ankara 6th Criminal Judgeship of Peace cited strong suspicion of breaching the Associations Law, acting as an intermediary in publishing obscene material and obscenity in places visible to children, together with a risk of flight and of tampering with evidence. Seven substitute board members were released under judicial control, subject to a travel ban and weekly reporting.

Tekerek is a freelance journalist who also reports for DW Türkçe. She was detained in İstanbul and transferred to Ankara. According to Kaos GL’s editor-in-chief Yıldız Tar, she was detained over a single article she had written for Kaos GL about the LGBTI+ movement in Georgia. The Turkish Journalists’ Union said her professional work had been turned into grounds for investigation.

In Mersin, 28 of 36 detainees were remanded. In İzmir, 16 of 18 were remanded on 14 September.

The Ankara 4th Criminal Judgeship of Peace had ordered the blocking of Kaos GL’s website and social media accounts on 11 September, two days before the raids began.

The European Commission expressed concern on 14 September about the arrests and proceedings, the blocking of websites and accounts, and the investigations into civil society funding. Nacho Sánchez Amor, the European Parliament’s standing rapporteur on Türkiye, described the operations as a shocking escalation.

The Commissioner called for releases on 15 September. On 16 September the number of people held in pre-trial detention had risen to at least 60.