I saw in Gay Times a short report that Ahmet Yildiz, an openly gay 26 year old physics student was shot as he left a cafe near the Bosphorus Strait this week. He tried to flee from the attackers in his car, but lost control of the vehicle and crashed. Yildiz died shortly afterwards in hospital. Yildiz’ friends and associates believe he was the victim of so-called honor killing.
This short news item caught my attention as I just recently returned from a vacation trip to Istanbul. The fatal attack happened only a few days after I had left Istanbul.
While in Istanbul I took part with my husband in an event organised by Istanbul Bear club. This event may illustrate the situation for gay people in Istanbul. The many participants in the event seemed mostly openly gay and were enjoying themselves very much like any western gay people. Some people had come from other islamic countries to Istanbul where they can be more openly gay.
On one night the organisers had an agreement to use a local disco for a venue. My husband wanted to get away from the music so we were sitting near the entrance of the place where there wre some other people as well. Suddenly the owners of the place appeared and started to drive gay people violently away from where they were visible to the street. We heard later, that the party ended soon after that night.
Maybe Ahmet Yildiz was there that night or some other night. This thought makes the news of his death more personal. Still I hope that the climate in Turkey and other islamic countries is moving towards the acceptance of gay and lesbian people.