Freelance journalist Tugba Tekerek arrested in Turkey after crackdown on LGBTQI organizations

Freelance journalist Tugba Tekerek was last online on Whatsapp at 22:22 on Saturday night. The police then stormed into her apartment and arrested her.

The arrest was part of a major crackdown on gay bars and LGBTQ activists. Several social media accounts belonging to LGBTQ organizations were also blocked over the weekend.

"Legal actions have been initiated against 162 suspected persons, nine organizations and 13 companies in a total of 15 provinces, including Istanbul and Ankara," Justice Minister Akin Gürlek wrote on X.

The crackdowns were carried out within the framework of a project called "My family is safe" announced by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The organization Kaos GL, which works for human rights in Turkey and is the country's first official LGBTQI association, said in a statement that "more than ten" of its members had been arrested. Legal authorities in the capital have claimed that Kaos GL published "posts with obscene content" on its website and social media, and that the content was accessible to children. The posts are usually about equality and freedom for LGBTQI people.

How Tugba Tekerek got involved in this raid is difficult to understand. She has been taken to Ankara where a court is citing an article she wrote in 2024 as evidence. It was published by Kaos GL and was about the situation of LGBTQ people in Georgia.

She lets critics speak, she brings irregularities to the surface and she works independently without allowing herself to be censored.

On Tuesday, she was brought before a court for the first time and was then able to leave a written message to the outside world via her lawyers:

"This time the lottery hit me. In 2024, I went to Georgia before the election and wrote various news articles for many different media. I also wrote a copyrighted article for the news website Kaos GL. Now I am listed as the Instagram representative of Kaos GL in the police report! A baseless and absurd accusation! I only wrote a news article within the framework of journalism. The truth will come out sooner or later. Please, don't give them more leeway. Messages of solidarity are priceless. A thousand thanks to everyone who showed solidarity!”

The judge, for his part, ruled that there is "ample evidence" that Tekerek has spread "obscene content" and that it has been accessible to children, which violates one of Turkey's laws, which states that no one can try to "convert children" and "make them homosexual."

I have worked with Tugba Tekerek several times and know her as an extremely competent and professional journalist. Unlike the increasing number of Turkish journalists, who have begun to devote themselves more to propaganda than to journalism, she still sees the basic mission as scrutinizing power. She lets critics speak, she brings irregularities to the surface and she works independently without allowing herself to be censored.

It is dangerous in today's Turkey. Under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country has made a major shift from democracy to an authoritarian state. Tugba Tekerek is neither the first nor the last journalist to be arrested after merely doing his job.

Most likely the powers that be have had their eyes on her for years and now saw a chance to use her reporting for Kaos GL as an excuse to arrest her. The Turkish courts do not work with certainty and the weak evidence therefore does not mean that she will be released.

What is probably needed is hard, international pressure on Turkey. Bad PR can also be sensitive to Erdogan. The question is whether journalism is now officially a crime in Turkey?