Grand National Assembly of Turkey

CHP Toprak’s Question to PM Erdoğan on Action Plan to Eradicate Violence and Discrimination against LGBT People

Source: Not yet published on the Grand National Assembly of Turkey website- original document below as .pdf

TO THE GRAND NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF TURKEY

I request that the questions below be answered by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Sincerely,

Professor Dr. Binnaz Toprak

The policies of denial, violence, and annihilation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual citizens continue. Though NGOs and the ministry agreed to include the the terms sexual orientation and gender identity in the Draft Law on the Protection of Family and the Prevention of Violence against Women, they were later removed by the Council of Ministers. The Justice and Development Party has rejected the inclusion of the protection of sexual orientation and gender identity in the new constitution drafting process.  The drafts of the Ban on Discrimination and Article on Equality also exclude the terms.

LGBT people, the victims of horrible hate crimes, demand an end to the policies and discourses of denial, violence, and othering and the creation of an action plan to change the way of thinking and social structure that is at the root of these policies.

In this context,

1. Does the Justice and Development Party government have a political, legal, and social action plan to resolve the victimization LGBT people face?

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CHP Parliamentarian Melda Onur’s Comments in Meeting with US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power

Source: LGBTI NEWS TURKEY,  simultaneous translation at event, 10 December 2013.

Melda Onur:

First of all we would like to thank you for this opportunity on this very important day, on human rights day. I am representing the main opposition party from Turkey, which is the Republican People’s Party.

Even though there is an ocean between Turkey and the US it is almost like we are neighbors. Both countries visit each other quite often and the president of the Republican People’s Party was just here. So I think everyone is following each other quite well. We are also sure that you have been following the rights violations in Turkey. These happen in various fields but the most important are the problems in the judiciary, in the freedom of expression, long detainment periods of parliamentarians as well as journalists.

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The Backstage to the Hate Crimes Law

Source: Melda Onur, “Nefret Suçları Yasasının Perde Arkası,” (“The Backstage to the Hate Crimes Law,”) Odatv.com, 1 October 2013, http://www.odatv.com/n.php?n=nefret-suclari-yasasinin-perde-arkasi-0110131200

I did not expect much from the democracy package. “It is not worth talking about a package that does not demand changes in the Turkish Civil Code (TMK) and the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) and that continues to defend the election threshold” but I have to talk about one point: Hate Crimes…     

About a year and a half ago, a group reached me via e-mail; they started a campaign called “I Demand Hate Crimes Legislation.” They wanted me to sign the petition and help them reach other deputies to sign. The name of the campaign was “Don’t Hate” (“Nefretme“). I went back in time to my days of journalism and NGO activism and I rolled up my sleeves to enter the process. I signed the petition and I did my best to get other deputies to sign. But really, I had two principal issues to deal with. First, I had to help the campaign in media publicity. Second, I had to help the team contact commission leaders.

I immediately contacted the Association for Social Change (ASC), which embraces this campaign. I met Murat Köylü and Levent Şensever at ASC and we launched a media publicity campaign and a schedule for the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. During this process, I met Yasemin Inceoğlu, a rare scholar who works on hate crimes. The Republican People’s Party (CHP) Bursa Parliamentarian Aykan Erdemir, who has been working on this issue for years, already had contacts with the association in the legislative process. My part was to help create public opinion.

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