Turkish newspaper calls gay people ‘dirty deviants’ after student protest

Illustrated rainbow pride flag on a white background.

A nationalistic newspaper in Turkey, Yeni Akit (The New Covenant) has described gay people as ‘dirty’ and ‘deviants’.

The report was published after a protest was held while the country’s prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited the Middle East Technical University (METU) to watch the launching of a Turkish satellite called Göktürk-2.

Some of the students waved rainbow flags. The university bans student organisations to promote women’s or LGBT rights. It has said in the past: “there are no women at our school, only girls” and “our students don’t need a sexual club.” 3,000 police officers were assigned to break down the protest.

Today, the article in the Yeni Akit newspaper said that the students are in constant fight with “generally accepted norms of society”, perform dances with “dirty figures” and get along with “deviants” from LGBT organisation Kaos GL.

The organisation said that the newspaper accused an MP who met with them of “being on the side of deviants”. After the Kaos GL campaign sued the paper, the newspaper paid around 2,500 Euros in compensation.