In the last few weeks, and especially in the last few days, the so-called LGBT issue has moved from the periphery to the center of the political agenda in Turkey and has become a serious issue linked to other important issues of Turkish public and political life. Before discussing the problem in detail, let us remember that it did not appear suddenly and that we have already devoted a number of articles to it:
1) Turkey: Muslims Against the «Homodictatorship» (https://golosislama.com/news.php?id=38485);
2) LGBT and Conservatism in Russia and Turkey (https://golosislama.com/news.php?id=38859); and
3) Istanbul’s Conservative Revolution Against the Istanbul Convention (https://golosislama.com/news.php?id=38881).
The latest incident that escalated the conflict between the Muslim part of the country and the so-called LGBT community was the display of a painting by its representatives at the Bosphorus University, in which the Holy Kaaba was depicted with the «rainbow flag» and surrounded by various pagan cults and symbols. For understandable reasons, we will not publish this image as many readers who are interested in Turkish news have already seen it. This disgusting act has caused outrage among Muslims from all walks of life. Dr. Ali Erbash, the head of the Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet), who has previously clashed with sodomites, stated that in response to this attack on Islamic values, Diyanet would work to eliminate all officially registered LGBT associations. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed his young supporters, saying, «By God’s will, we will lead our youth into the future, but not as LGBT youth, but as young people connected to the history of this nation. For example, you do not resemble LGBT youth; you are not confused youth; on the contrary, you are the youth that mend these broken hearts.»
But the harshest tweets came from Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, who wrote: «Should we tolerate LGBT deviants insulting our holy sites? — Of course not. Should we tolerate LGBT perverts entering the rectorate building? — Of course not.» After that, Twitter suspended his account and Soylu moved to Telegram, continuing the trend we wrote about (https://golosislama.com/news.php?id=39483).
Many Islamic parties and organizations, including opposition groups and Muslim students of Bosphorus University, protested against this incident. By the way, after this, LGBT extremists from this university started to publish lists of students who defended Islamic holy places and called for boycotting them, expelling them from student unions, chats, and so on. As a result, the new rector of Bosphorus University, Melih Bulu, banned the officially recognized LGBT club that existed at the university, which led to clashes between LGBT supporters and the police.
And now we come to what preceded this extreme escalation of the conflict. The incident was the removal of the popular Mehmet Ozkan from the position of rector of Bosphorus University and the appointment of Melih Bulu, a supporter of the ruling party. This led to massive protests by many students at the university, which has long been a breeding ground for left-wing radicals, feminists and the «LGBT community. The issue has caused a political split. While the authorities’ actions are supported by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), a significant part of the opposition has sided with the protesting students. This includes not only the already ideological Republican People’s Party (CHP), but also radical nationalist opposition groups such as the «Good Party» (IYI Party) and even former Erdogan ally Ali Babacan, who is considered a person with moderate conservative views.
On the other hand, the opposition Felicity Party (Saadet), as its name suggests, has effectively sided with the government on this issue, which has sparked talk of a possible alliance between it and the AKP. However, despite the party’s efforts, the so-called LGBT issue in Turkey is becoming increasingly relevant and cannot be underestimated in its complexity and destructive potential.
We know that many of our readers believe that this problem should be solved by brutally suppressing the relevant public and closing the issue. This would be the easiest solution from the perspective of a religious or value-consistent homogeneous society that lives without regard for the rest of the world. But this is clearly not the situation in Turkey.
Firstly, Turkey is firmly integrated into the global economic, information, technological and scientific system, i.e. the international community, where LGBT people or those who support them for some reason are in a dominant position today. It is obvious that any Taliban or ISIS-style action in this matter, which some of our readers would like to see, would lead to Turkey’s final break with the West and the cessation of cooperation in all these areas, which would lead to an economic collapse and, in all likelihood, a change of government.
Second, unfortunately, Turkish society itself is far from united on this issue. While its conservative majority currently rejects the «LGBT movement,» attitudes on this issue are changing among the younger generation, especially among students who will soon become part of the Turkish elite. Under these circumstances, is it possible to find a solution to this problem that does not lead the country to increasing internal division and external isolation?
Ali Nuriev, the author of one of the popular Russian-speaking Islamic Telegram channels «Wild Field» (https://t.me/wildfield) and a columnist for «TRT in Russian», wrote the following today: «The situation around Bosphorus University convinces me once again that the main internal problem of Turkey is polarization — not the absence of unity, but the absence of a deep and clear division, as Shadi Hamid writes in Islamic Exceptionalism. All parties in Turkey claim to represent the entire republic and nation and therefore do not allow any ideologically alien autonomy. Conservatives do not only seek political power; they must conquer every media and institution in the country. This is what is happening now with the Bosphorus University, which (historically) was an oasis of secular and liberal forces. On the other hand, those who protest against «political Islam» cannot be left alone. This makes conservative Turks very angry. It is not enough for them that conservatives leave them alone with their way of life — they also want the rainbow flag to fly over the Kaaba, for the Diyanet to issue progressive fatwas, and for imams to cleanse their speeches of hate speech… And something tells me that if Turkish leftists come to power, they will launch a ‘reconquista’ and take over Diyanet, conservative media and institutions. The problem is that neither side has the resources or opportunities to completely win (and, most importantly, maintain) the whole of Turkey, either politically or culturally. It would be nice to recognize, at least informally, the existence of different ‘millets’ within the Turkish nation, similar to the Ottoman millets of the 19th century.»
This quote touches on serious issues. We have to understand that the LGBT issue, as it stands in the West or as it is presented in Turkey, is no longer just a matter of what people do in their bedrooms behind closed doors. In this sense, when the banned Twitter user Suleyman Soylu says that there was no such thing as LGBT in Turkey in the past, he is absolutely right, no matter how others try to disprove it with cases (or fakes) of homosexual relations in the Sultan’s court, etc. This is confirmed by the well-known feminist and LGBT activist Pinar Karabag, who states that they are not fighting against the persecution of people living an «unusual» life, but for the recognition of their «identity» and «community». This is what she claims: «Alevis, Kurds or migrants are recognized by society, even if they are discriminated against. Their existence is not denied. The existence of LGBT people is also not denied, but they are not recognized as a community. Therefore, since their identity is not recognized, they are in a constant struggle.» LGBT activists in Turkey are not fighting against the persecution of people with a corresponding sexual orientation — they themselves admit that society is tolerant towards them. They are fighting for recognition of their identity and community, similar to the recognition that Kurds, Alevis, or migrant communities have received. However, they have never been recognized as such in Turkish history, although such people have always existed.
Another question is, why do they demand to be recognized as a community while disrespecting other communities, especially Muslims? After all, what was that despicable painting of the LGBT flag over the Kaaba if not one community mocking another? Therefore, when Ali Nuriev writes about the hypothetical possibility of reproducing the Ottoman millet system, in which different religious communities coexisted without interfering in each other’s lives, under new conditions, this would require the same respect for the identity and interests of the Muslim community from the so-called LGBT and other Islamophobic individuals. However, based on the behavior of all these people, we know very well that they cannot leave Islam and Muslims in peace and will try to reshape and «re-educate» them.
The current government is trying to solve this problem through administrative methods, as is currently happening with the Bosphorus University. On the one hand, this approach is logical — why fund a public educational institution that does not provide equal conditions and has essentially become a stronghold for such «communities»? On the other hand, trying to fight cultural wars almost exclusively or predominantly by administrative means is almost always a losing strategy in the long run. We warned about this already in 2018 on our website in an article entitled «The Islamic Camp in Turkey Between the State and Jamaah» (https://golosislama.com/news.php?id=34311) by Harun Sidorov: «…how successfully can a bureaucratic, rigid institution like the state, which tends to become ossified, fight a cultural war for hegemony in the modern world? On the one hand, the successes of the ruling circles in reviving the Ottoman-Islamic cultural heritage are evident — just look at the Turkish film industry with series like ‘Ertugrul’ and ‘The Right to the Throne’, among others. On the other hand, numerous sociological studies show a declining interest in religion among Turkish youth, due to both the bureaucratic nature of Diyanet’s state-sponsored Islam and the counter-cultural propaganda of leftist and liberal groups, bloggers and media. Active, bottom-up, mass gatherings have traditionally been the antidote to these tendencies; however, under the conditions of an information society, it is already questionable whether they are capable of waging the cultural wars of the new generation instead of the familiar methods that are losing their relevance».
If we look at the educational aspect, we now have a situation where the enemies of Islamic values in Turkey have their intellectual centers and focal points, represented by whole universities, which the state officials are trying to counter. Unfortunately, however, there are no equivalent centers or focal points of Islamic or conservative-minded intellectuals, especially those who are popular among the youth, who could effectively resist this anti-Islamic war with ideological methods rather than administrative and coercive methods. This is happening because the Islamic forces that have come to power, which originally emerged from society and confronted the authorities, have become too dependent on the state and its ability to implement top-down decisions. Therefore, just as Islamic forces, mainly autonomous Jamaahs, were forged in opposition to the anti-Islamic authorities a few decades ago, forces with anti-Islamic values, represented by these «communities,» are now forged in opposition to the pro-Islamic authorities. This is a major problem for Turkey.
*Banned in Russia.