Turkish police detained at least 30 people on Sunday as activists attempted to hold a Pride march in central Istanbul, an event that the city’s governor had formally banned. Footage circulated by local media showed officers scuffling with participants waving rainbow flags in neighbourhoods near Ortaköy and Taksim before loading them into police vans. The Istanbul Bar Association later said the number of arrests exceeded 50 and included several lawyers and journalists; police had not commented by late evening. Kezban Konukcu, a lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish DEM Party who was present at the scene, condemned the arrests and called them part of a wider clampdown on freedom of assembly. Governor Davut Gül had earlier warned that gatherings threatening “public order, family structure and moral values” would not be allowed, repeating language used by authorities to justify prohibitions on Pride events every year since 2015. Until the ban was imposed, Istanbul Pride drew tens of thousands of participants and was one of the region’s largest LGBTQ demonstrations. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted AK Party has hardened its stance in recent years; in January, Erdogan declared 2025 the “Year of the Family,” alleging that LGBTQ advocacy undermines traditional values and contributes to Turkey’s declining birth rate. Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, say such rhetoric is fuelling a hostile climate for LGBTQ people and eroding civil liberties.