Police Arrest 36, Disperse Pride Parade in Ankara, Turkey

Turkish police used teargas and pepper spray to halt an LGBT pride march in the capital Ankara on Tuesday after authorities banned gay pride marches across the country, ostensibly for security reasons. Police pepper-sprayed activists and dragged them on the ground before handcuffing them and putting them on buses. The Ankara-based LGBT rights group UniKuir said at least 36 people were detained. More than 300 people were detained last week when police dispersed a larger pride march in Istanbul. The annual pride parade in Istanbul’s main Istiklal Avenue once attracted thousands of attendees, but in recent years the government of President Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist-based AK Party has toughened its stance on gay rights. Homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey but hostility to it is widespread and police crackdowns on pride parades have been increasingly more brutal.