LGBT Turks Take Stock After Disrupted Pride Celebrations
Voice of America
ISTANBUL - More than a month after Turkish authorities crushed Pride-themed events in Istanbul, emotions still run raw for members of the country's embattled LGBT community.
"There was lots of violence. I was beaten up and so were most of the people I was arrested with," Istanbul resident Alaz Yener told VOA. "They used zip ties to handcuff us, hands behind our back, and refused to cut the zip ties off for a long time." Yener, who is non-binary, was detained when security forces broke up an attempted Pride parade in Taksim, a central Istanbul borough. Other LGBT-themed gatherings were also disrupted in the city in June, recognized as Pride month for sexual minorities in many parts of the world. "The violence, and also the way the police dehumanized and insulted us at every chance, trying to assert as much control as possible on everything we did, it was all very stressful," Yener said.
South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol attends the fourth hearing of his impeachment trial over his short-lived imposition of martial law at the Constitutional Court in Seoul on Jan. 23, 2025.
The flags of China and Afghanistan's Taliban are displayed during a news conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Jan. 5, 2023. A gun attack claimed by an Islamic State affiliate killed a Chinese national in northeast Afghanistan, the Taliban announced on Jan. 22, 2025.
Rescuers help elderly residents leave their damaged home after a missile attack in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Jan. 23, 2025.
FILE - In this photo provided by the South Korean Defense Ministry, Chinese fishing boats are seen in neutral waters around Ganghwa island, South Korea, June 10, 2016. Chinese structures and buildings at the man-made island on Mischief Reef at the Spratlys group of islands in the South China Sea are seen on March 20, 2022.
A man holds a picture of Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi as protesters, mainly Houthi supporters, participate in a rally to show support to Lebanon's Hezbollah and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Sanaa, Yemen Oct. 25, 2024. A Houthi supporter raises his dagger during an anti-U.S and Israel rally in Sanaa, Yemen, Jan. 17, 2025. Israeli bomb squad police officers remove part of a missile fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels after it hit a house in the Israeli village of Mevo Beitar, near Jerusalem, on Jan. 14, 2025. FILE - Oil tanks burn at the port in Hodeidah, Yemen, July 20, 2024. The Israeli army said it has struck several Houthi targets in western Yemen following a fatal drone attack by the rebel group in Tel Aviv the previous day.
FILE - Wind turbines spin at the Klettwitz Nord solar energy park near Klettwitz, Germany, Oct. 15, 2024. FILE - The Jaenschwalde coal-fired power plant operates in Jaenschwalde, Germany, Oct. 16, 2024.
Russian soldiers stand at a radar facility on the Alexandra Land island near Nagurskoye, Russia, May 17, 2021. The facility is Russia's northernmost military outpost. FILE - A view of Pituffik Space Base (formerly Thule Air Base), a U.S. base in Greenland, Oct. 4, 2023.
Rescue personnel transport a survivor from the site of a landslide triggered by heavy rains to a hospital in Mudal village, near Pekalongan city in Central Java, on Jan. 22, 2025.
FILE - Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov enter a hall for talks in Moscow on March 6, 2024. Nigeria on Jan. 17, 2025, became an official partner in the BRICS economic and political bloc, of which Russia is a founding member.
FILE - Trucks loaded with aid wait to cross into Gaza from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on Jan. 19, 2025. Displaced Palestinians inspect the ruins of their home, which was destroyed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, a day after the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas came into effect, Jan. 20, 2025.
Thabang Kopelo led a protest advocating for the employment of local teachers in Gaborone, Botswana, on Jan. 22, 2025.
FILE - Afghan refugees hold placards in Islamabad, Pakistan, July 21, 2023. Thousands of Afghans are still waiting to be relocated to the United States.
FILE - Prince Harry and attorney David Sherborne leave Britain's High Court in London on June 7, 2023. Sherborne read a statement in court on Jan. 22, 2025, saying Rupert Murdoch's News Group offers a "full and unequivocal apology" for unlawful intrusion on Harry's privacy. Former British lawmaker Tom Watson speaks outside the High Court in London on Jan. 22, 2025, about News Group's settlement regarding allegations of unlawful information gathering. Rupert Murdoch arrives in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington before the inauguration of President Donald Trump on Jan. 20, 2025. FILE - Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at United Nations headquarters in New York on July 18, 2022.
FILE - A man clears the rubble in front of St. Andrew's Cathedral which was damaged by a Russian strike on Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Jan 18, 2025.
FILE - Afghan refugees deported from Pakistan wait to receive food aid by Red Cross Society in Kandahar on Jan. 24, 2024 FILE - Afghan refugees wait to register in a camp near the Torkham Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Torkham, Afghanistan, Nov. 4, 2023.
FILE - People wait in line for the opening of a polling office during the presidential election in Libreville, Gabon, Aug. 26, 2023. Soon after the election, longtime President Ali Bongo Ondimba was ousted by a coup. FILE - Transitional President of Gabon Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, addresses the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 26, 2024, at U.N. headquarters.
Firefighters and emergency teams work on the aftermath of a fire that broke out at a hotel in the ski resort of Kartalkaya, located in Bolu province, northwest Turkey, on Jan. 22, 2025.