İstanbul Medeniyet University has launched a second disciplinary investigation into students who staged a protest against a family ministry-sponsored seminar they say targeted LGBTQ+ individuals, according to the Bianet news website.
The controversy dates back to a December 6, 2025, protest when students demonstrated against a seminar titled “Our Civilization and Our Family,” saying it portrayed LGBTQ+ people as threats to family life.
Following the protest, the university launched a disciplinary investigation that resulted in one student receiving a reprimand, a decision the student later appealed.
On January 23 the university launched a second investigation targeting students who participated in the same protest. The accusations include “entering the area in front of the seminar hall without permission,” “engaging in LGBTQ+ propaganda,” “damaging the surroundings with purple paint” and “displaying illegal flags.”
The students denied allegations that they had chanted slogans such as “Down with fascism” and “You will perish” during the protest.
They said the repeated investigations amounted to a systematic effort to silence dissent and create a climate of fear on campus, describing the disciplinary process as an intimidation tactic aimed at suppressing LGBTQ+ student activism.
The case comes amid growing restrictions on LGBTQ+ expression in Turkey. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) has increasingly portrayed LGBTQ+ visibility as a threat to public morality and family values. Pride marches have been banned in major cities for years, and officials frequently describe LGBTQ+ advocacy as an attack on traditional norms.
Turkey was ranked 47th out of 49 countries in the 2025 Rainbow Index, an annual assessment of LGBTQ+ rights, which placed it among the bottom five in Europe.
