Turkish media have reported the homophobic remarks of AKP MP Ayse Dogan at the Commission on Equal Opportunity for Women and Men of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The meeting focused on a proposal to establish a Human Rights and Equality Foundation of Turkey as a subsidiary organ in order to focus on protecting and improving human rights based on individual’s dignity, to ensure their right to be treated equally and to prevent discrimination in benefiting from lawful rights and freedom.
However, CHP and HDP parties were critical of the fact that sexual orientation and gender identity were exluded from the proposal. Republican People’s Party MP Candan Yunceer stated that lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans individuals are faced with discrimination and killed. Yceer further added that overlooking this problem, and interpreting recommendations listed on international agreements would mean ignoring the individuals who are being discriminated against. Yüceer suggested that excluding sexual orientation and gender identity from the proposal would mean that “all will benefit from the lawful rights and freedom, except for those who are less equal.” Meanwhile Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Filiz Kerestecioğlu, emphasized that sexual orientation and gender identity must be included in the proposal, and that turning a blind eye to these individuals would not simply make them disappear.
However Ayse Dogan MP from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) had a different opinion suggesting that “there is no need to change our commission’s agenda by including a different subculture, with artificial sexual tendencies that are not in line with human nature and our society’s customs and traditions. Here, we discuss values in professional life as ladies and men. There is no point in bringing up [a] different group’s private life and their private gender identities in bedroom. Everybody knows that this can be one of the biggest threats to our society.”