We are publishing the 4th installment of our Elections 2023 Reports. With news reports published in English every week until the May 14 Elections, we aim to inform our readers in Turkey and in the Diaspora about the latest developments regarding LGBTQI+ and the elections in Turkey. We hope our reports will highlight various achievements of LGBTQI+ individuals and organizations in the field of politics while establishing an archive of the 2023 Elections. Please feel free to share these reports with your friends, families, and colleagues who are looking for more information on the upcoming elections and LGBTQI+ in Turkey.
You can read the previously published reports from the link.
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- History was made on Sunday with four openly LGBTQI+ candidates finding their spots in the MP lists of the Labor and Independence Alliance. Trans activist and actress Esmeray Özadikti is TİP’s 3rd MP candidate in Istanbul 2nd District. TİP needs approximately 200,000 votes in the district to send the first openly trans MP to the Parliament. Talya Aydın and Niler Albayrak were also featured in TİP’s lists. Aysima Mihriban Mehtap Arslan, a queer activist from Antepqueer, became a candidate for Yeşil Sol Party.
- The historical importance of Özadikti, Aydın, Albayrak, and Arslan’s candidacies triggered a series of reporting and posts on the successes and struggles of LGBTQI+ candidates in the field of representative politics. At Velvele, we published Miran Koçkır’s essay on the history of the movement’s participation in politics. KaosGL and SPoD published similar reports and posts, reminding everyone of LGBTQI+ candidates’ achievements.
- Erdoğan called LGBTQI+ people “a perverted wave” and said that he will not allow them to “exist” in Turkey.
- Contrary to the bigots’ wishes and electoral campaign promises, as LGBTQI+ people, we are here, we are queer, and we will never be silenced.
- Political parties declared their MP candidates lists on Sunday. The CHP included approximately 30 candidates from the Deva, Gelecek, Saadet and Demokrat Parties, smaller parties of its alliance, for “electable positions.” The CHP and the İyi Party coordinated while shaping their lists in certain districts to maximize the alliance’s success. The AKP included the Hüda Par and the DSP leaders in their lists, as expected. The MHP had already submitted its own separate list. The HDP and the TİP coordinated while shaping their lists in certain districts to maximize the alliance’s success.
- The HDP, which is entering into elections under the umbrella of the Yeşil Sol Party, won’t be able to have officials at any voting station, in Turkey or abroad. Instead of the HDP’s representatives, the MHP’s representatives will be at overseas voting stations.
- Marc Buschmann, the German Minister of Justice, warned Germany’s Ministers of Foreign Affairs and of Interior about AKP’s election rallies in Germany and their potential to spread hate speech.
