bekir bozdağ, minister of justice, has announced turkey will have new prison exclusively for the lgbt convicts. turkey currently segregates the lgbt from the general population, and lgbt prisoners are guarded by “pink wards”.
currently, the prison population who identify as lgbt are only about 81 persons. the minister divided 75 for being in for various crimes: 22 being convicted for homicide, 44 for robberies and stealing, 6 for drugs, 3 for sexual assault, 2 for trespassing, 2 for fraud, 1 for damaging public property and 1 for bodily harm.
in the meantime, there has been a growing criticism about this, with intellectuals arguing that such a move would alienate lgbt persons from socializing enviornments. for example, mustafa eren, who’s with the CISST, a human rights organization dealing with inmates, such a move would be a breach of human rights.
you can find the original article in turkish here: http://bit.ly/1hGh8FZ
