TGEU Countries: Turkey Direct transphobic violence For the record 1. An Internet news site negatively targeted a trans jour- Trans women experience discrimination in access to Trans people experience high levels of violence from The recent TvT survey showed that 73 per cent of re- nalist who was physically attacked by the police while employment opportunities other than sex work. The their family members, partners, clients, organised spondents in Turkey have been bullied or attacked be- following up on a street event. The news site used overtly TvT survey revealed that the employment situation for groups, the police and other perpetrators. Due to trans- cause of their identity. The reported forms of violence transphobic language. trans people in Turkey is among the worst in the world. phobia, “sex-worker-phobia” and the lack of protection include death threats, sexual violence, blackmail and The question of whether respondents have ever lost mechanisms, trans women in particular face the difficul- extortion, as well as physical aggression. The analysis 2. Some people in Agri reacted against a trans activ- their job because of their gender identity was answered ty of living in an unsafe environment. shows a large variety in the forms of violence they have ist’s posters, which were put up in support of Selahat- in the affirmative by 39 per cent of respondents in Tur- experienced. Of the 109 respondents, 43 stated that tin Demirtas’s candidacy in the presidential elections. key. Furthermore, 52 per cent of respondents stated they have received death threats. Attacks including Demirtas is an LGBT rights activist and a municipal Peo- that they have been refused employment often or once According to TGEU’s Trans Murder Monitoring data, 37 physical violence were reported by 64 people. Further- ple’s Democratic Party candidate. People told a newspa- or twice because of their gender identity. These experi- trans people were murdered in Turkey between 1 Janu- more, 56 respondents stated that they have experi- per that the posters were promoting immorality. ences may also be reflected in the number of trans and ary 2008 and 31 December 2014, accounting for 39 per enced sexual violence. gender-diverse people who earn their money through cent of all reported murders in Europe. 8 ProTrans also 3. The perpetrator called a trans sex worker on the phone sex work. Seventy-six per cent of respondents in Turkey confirmed that trans people are disproportionately af- Trans people also experience high levels of police vio- and joked about her gender identity. He made a video of stated that they earn their living by doing sex work. 7 fected by hate crimes, discrimination and hate speech, lence. Existing legislation 10 on sex work paves the way as confirmed by the 72 cases it recorded in the span of for police officers to use excessive force against sex a single year. workers, and trans-women sex workers are continu- the joke and shared it on the Internet. ously harassed and discriminated against by the police. These alarming figures demonstrate how regularly mur- Human Rights Watch has reported that trans people in ders and hate crimes are committed against trans peo- Turkey are vulnerable to police abuse in the form of “ar- ple in Turkey. Several incidents of violence, including bitrary arrest, prohibitive fines, and repressive regimes murders, had a transphobic or “sex-worker-phobic” mo- of medical testing”. 11 In the TvT survey, 75 per cent of tive, including the brutal sexual assault, theft and death the 109 respondents in Turkey reported experiences threats against Kemal Ördek, co-founder of Red Umbrel- of police harassment, with 61 per cent stating that they la and former TGEU co-chair, in Ankara on 5 July 2015, experienced it often. Experiences of police harassment which were followed by police threats and insults. In are even higher among trans sex workers. Seventy-nine many cases, perpetrators’ sentences have been reduced per cent of trans sex workers in Turkey reported having when they confessed that they had murdered the victims experienced police harassment, and 62 per cent stat- because they found out that they were trans, wanted to ed that they have often done so. 12 Furthermore 47 per restore their family’s honour or panicked at seeing a trans cent stated that they had been fined by the police often, person. Many of the incidents involved an extreme de- while 29 per cent stated that they had been fined once gree of brutality, including dozens of stab wounds, decap- or twice. The reasons given for fines are prostitution, itation and the removal of silicone implants or genitals. cross-dressing and public nuisance. 13 9 + 96 + + 97 +