Culture war: Religious and conservative organizations in Turkey have launched a large network campaign aimed at fighting the values of LGBT rights and equality that have gained some support in the country in recent decades.
The campaign, which comes under the hashtag "Let's go to Holland", in a clear call to those who are interested in establishing a proud lifestyle in the country to leave it for Europe, won to the support of thousands of surfers on social networks and became one of the leading hashtags on the Twitter network in Turkey.
Yesterday a demonstration of hundreds of people against the LGBT community took place in the conservative Fatih district of the capital Istanbul and the participants chanted slogans against the community and against "Western values".
Many of the participants of the rally belonged to the groups that won the support of the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, photo: Reuters
Dr. Asa Ophir, an expert on Turkey from the Department of Middle Eastern Studies and Political Science at Ariel University, explains: "In Turkey, in recent years, there has been a very lively discussion around the LGBT issue. Although Erdogan's Justice and Development Party is a conservative party with an Islamist agenda, they have not banned the pride parades in the country in the first years of their rule. In 2015 a certain turn began when for the first time the government forbade the holding of the pride parade in Istanbul, and in fact since then the government has prevented the holding of pride parades in the country."
In recent times, the voices of the conservatives in the country are getting louder and louder as a counter to the progressive culture and the LGBT phenomenon that comes from the West, a phenomenon that the conservatives in the country categorically deny and see as a threat to the traditional family structure of Turkish society. Their condition has worsened significantly," says Dr. Ofir.
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