Like many children across the world sent home from school, youngsters in Turkey were encouraged to draw pictures of rainbows and place them in windows to cheer up the country in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Orders to teachers from some local education boards to stop because the rainbows were part of a “plot” to turn children gay were met with surprise.
Instead of boosting morale, the lockdown rainbows have become yet another symbol of division, the latest cultural battleground in a country highly polarised along political and religious lines.
“Unfortunately this sort of anti-LGBTQ mentality is widespread even if ordinary people don’t see a connection between children’s drawings and gay rights,” said Meral Gülsen, a representative for teachers union Eğitim Sen.
“I’m not sure if the orders have a bigger government backing. If the issue is stoked by the government though little things like this can become huge.”
As Turkey braces for a second financial crisis in as many years and voters’ faith in the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) wanes, the government is capitalising on new ways to whip up populist support as well as stymie political opposition.
While homosexuality is legal in Turkey, the LGBTQ community still faces huge stigma and is often the target of bigoted ire from conservative politicians and pundits. The furore over children’s rainbow drawings, combined with dogwhistle remarks by the head of the religious affairs directorate during a Ramadan sermon that gay people “spread disease”, were met with concern by human rights and legal advocacy groups. The Izmir Bar Association said Ali Erbaş’ comments could fuel hate crimes, while an Ankara-based human rights group filed a judicial complaint.
Those actions in turn led to a veiled threat from president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that any attack on the head of the Diyanet, or religious affairs directorate, was tantamount to an attack on the state. Retaliatory investigations into the bar associations in Ankara and Diyarbakir on the grounds of “belittling the religious values adopted by Turkish society” followed.
“It’s pretty sad that the natural beauty of a rainbow is automatically assumed to have a political agenda in Turkey,” said activist Aydinç Yüksel.
“But it’s pretty typical for the government to try and find a scapegoat for its problems. With coronavirus it was the Chinese first, and now seemingly out of the blue, it’s us. It’s all the more surprising because more and more people these days are realising that being LGBT and being religious are not mutually exclusive.”
Control over the flow of information and political narratives has been even more important than usual for Ankara during the Covid-19 pandemic. More than 400 people have been detained for allegedly sharing “false and provocative” social media posts over the government’s handling of the pandemic, as well as several journalists.
Externally, Turkey has embarked on a wave of coronavirus diplomacy, distributing aid to dozens of countries in an attempt to raise Ankara’s standing – and in particular, repair frayed ties with the west at a time of economic need.
At home, however, the presidency has dedicated time and energy to shutting down local efforts by opposition-controlled municipalities to tackle the fallout from the virus, anxious to deny opposition figures the opportunity to show leadership and competency. Donation campaigns, soup kitchens and attempts to distribute bread and masks across the country have been halted.
The goverment has said such initiatives are an illegal attempt to undermine the state: Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and Ankara mayor Mansur Yavaş are both facing criminal probes for collecting donations not authorised by the local governors’ offices, and at least 900,000 lira (£105,000) in collected money has been been seized by the treasury. Soup kitchens in Eskisehir also had their bank accounts frozen, and efforts by Adana municipality to build a field hospital were stopped.
İmamoğlu called the move pathetic – but according to a survey by Metropoll, the opposition mayors, along with health minister Fahrettin Koca, are currently the most trusted politicians in the country, ahead of Erdoğan in fourth place.
At least one Turkish tradition revived for coronavirus has brought people together across the country’s many social divides.
Askıda fatura, which loosely translates as a “suspended bill”, is a centuries-old practice in which customers in bakeries pay for two loaves instead of one, meaning that someone in need can come in and eat in the future.
New online askıda fatura systems have allowed people in Istanbul and Ankara to anonymously donate to help pay water, gas and travel bills, raising £1.76m for around 57,000 struggling households in Istanbul alone since it was set up a week ago.
source https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/15/turkeys-lockdown-rainbows-have-become-another-symbol-of-division
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