Human Rights Watch

Lambdaistanbul: Hoping for “Peace” in 2016!

Source: “2016 için ‘Barış’ Diliyoruz!” (“Hoping for ‘Peace’ in 2016”), Lambdaistanbul, n.d., http://www.lambdaistanbul.org/s/etkinlik/2016-icin-baris-diliyoruz/

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In a few days another page will fall off the calendar, bringing 2016 in place of 2015.  While we should be full of excitement of new beginnings, we are instead going through a time when deaths and massacres have become routine news. While one side of the country is full of New Year’s decorations, the other is covered in bullet holes. In just the past year, more than 200,000 people have had to immigrate due to imposed curfews and threats to their safety. Schools are closed, health centers are closed, markets and bakeries are closed… and 11-year-old children die because their homes are struck by tank cannons.

See Human Rights Watch report “Turkey: Mounting Security Operation Deaths”

We are asking the authorities: How many more people need to die before a quieting of weapons and a return to the negotiation table occurs?

After the Diyarbakır, Suruc, and Ankara massacres, homophobia, transphobia, suicides, hate crimes, and traffic accidents, we have been through a rather difficult 2015. Despite all of this, it was again our solidarity and holding onto one another that allowed us to stay on our feet. As Lambdaistanbul, we are calling on you in these last days of the year to add your voices to ours and put an end to this war, this massacre.

We want 2016 to bring “Peace” to our country. However, in recognition that merely wanting this is not enough, we are taking action, and are informing all of our followers that in 2016 we will be hosting more events and creating more opportunities for discussion and debate. In addition, we would like you write what you wish for in the name of peace on a piece of cardboard and take a picture with it, and then share it with us through our email address () or through our Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Add your voice to our call for peace! When you are not with us, we are way too few.

 

Human Rights vs. LGBT Rights

Source: Çiçek Tahaoğlu, “İnsan Hakları vs LGBT Hakları,” (“Human Rights vs. LGBT Rights,”) Bianet, 28 December 2013, http://www.bianet.org/biamag/lgbtt/152398-insan-hayati-vs-lgbt-haklari

Among the thousands of Syrians staying in Turkey, there are certainly many LGBTIs.

What they say to Syrian LGBTs in Syria and in the countries where they seek asylum is “Human life is priority, not gay rights.”

Naturally they then ask: “Ours is not “human” life?”

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