Iris Mozalar, an LGBTI+ activist and member of the Workers’ Party of Turkey, TIP was arrested and charged with ‘inciting hatred and animosity among the public’ for her sosial media posts criticising violent attacks on refugees.
An LGBTI+ rights activist and member of the Workers’ Party of Turkey, TIP, Iris Mozalar, was arrested on Thursday over her social media posts condemning violent incidents against refugees in past weeks.
“While those who burned the homes of small children and wanted to carry out massacres were released, I was arrested because I criticized this,” Mozalar told Yesil Gazete before she was arrested on court orders for “inciting hatred and animosity among the public”.
In her social media posts, Mozalar opposed recent attacks on refugees and defended everyone’s right to live “happily and equally”.
Turkey has seen violent anti-migrant and anti-refugee protests in recent weeks following an alleged child abuse case in Kayseri province that involved Syrian refugees. Angry protesters raided shops owned by Syrian refugees and set fire to several vehicles in the city.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the violence as “vandalism”.
Turkey’s new generation left-wing TIP and LGBTI+ groups condemned the arrest of Mozalar. “Our comrade Iris has been arrested by the court for standing up against the attacks on refugees. We will continue our struggle until peace and brotherhood prevail in our country instead of hate and hostility,”.TIP’s LGBTI+ Bureau said in a written statement on Thursday.
The Istanbul LGBTI+ Pride Week Committee also demanded Mozalar’s immediate release.
“Our friend Mozalar was detained from her home last night over a tweet, held overnight, and brought before a judge this morning with a request for arrest. Freedom of expression cannot be suppressed. We demand her immediate release,”it said in a statement on Thursday.
The Socialists’ Women’s Assemblies said that Mozalar was not the one inciting hatred and animosity among the public. “It is not our solidarity that leads ‘the people to hatred and hostility’ but the male-dominated hate policies towards refugees,” they said on X on Thursday.
LGBTI+ groups and TIP plan a protest on Friday evening in Istanbul near Sureyya Opera House against Mozalar’s arrest.