Court Rejects Lawsuit Against Ban on Mersin Pride Week

* Photo: Kaos GL

Click to read the article in Turkish

The Mersin 1st Administrative Court has rejected the lawsuit against the Governorship's ban on 2019 Mersin Pride Week.

As reported by Kaos GL Association, after the Governorship of Mersin banned all LGBTI+ events to be held in the province for a period of 20 days, which also applied to the 2019 Mersin Pride Week, the Muamma LGBTI+ Solidarity Association took the ban to court.

CLICK - LGBTI+ Events Banned in Mersin

Underlining that Pride Week had been regularly organized in the province since 2015, the Association indicated that the ban in question was a violation of the right to assembly and demonstration as well as freedom of expression.

The Mersin 1st Administrative Court has concluded the appeal of the Association. The court has rejected the lawsuit, reiterating the same grounds put forward by the Governorship of Mersin such as "public peace", "prevention of crimes", "public health" and "public morality".

Justification: Terrorist organizations might react

Among the grounds cited for rejecting the lawsuit is also the possibility that "DAESH terrorist organization and some radical circles might react." 

While the Mersin 1st Administrative Court has referred to the LGBTI+ community's freedom of expression and association as "provocation", it has called the possibility of "terrorist organizations and some radical circles" to carry out a hate attack as "sparked reaction".

The Muamma LGBTI+ Solidarity Association will appeal against the verdict.

A similar decision in İstanbul

After the 2019 İstanbul LGBTI+ Pride Parade to be held in Taksim and Bakırköy were rejected, this ban was also taken to court. The lawsuit against this ban was also rejected by the court last week. (EMK/SD)