Turkish police fired water cannon and rubber pellets to disperse a crowd gathered in central Istanbul yesterday for the city’s annual gay pride parade.
It was not immediately clear why the police stopped the marchers gathering and chased away between 100 and 200 of them. The parade has been held in Istanbul in previous years, leading some to dub it the largest Pride event in the Muslim world.
However, the timing of this year’s parade coincided with the holy month of Ramadan, something that could have caused conservative Muslims to bristle.
Turkey’s Dogan news agency reported that police told the crowd to disperse soon after they began assembling, telling them they would not be allowed to march.
The police appeared intent on stopping the crowd gathering near Taksim Square, a Dogan cameraman said. Taksim is a traditional rallying ground for demonstrators and saw weeks of unrest in 2013.
The crowd regrouped a few blocks down the street and continued to dance and chant slogans against homophobia without any further clashes. The rally grew to several thousand people as the day wore on.
While homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey, as it is in most other Muslim countries, homophobia remains widespread.