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The crackdown comes amid broader tightening of press freedoms and erosion of the rule of law in Turkey over the past few years. . Violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity has been an endemic problem in Turkey – and met by silence from most state officials. On the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia this year, the Istanbul-based group Social Policies, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association decried persistent discrimination, impunity for violence, and lack of legal recognition and protection for LGBT people in Turkey. Human Rights Watch has documented a pattern of violent police dispersal of peaceful protests in Turkey, and the European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly found Turkey in violation of the right to assembly.
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KaosGL, a Turkish LGBT rights group, said they received calls throughout the night reporting injuries – including a victim hit with a rubber pellet who, they were told, might lose their eye. Riot police use a water cannon to disperse LGBT rights activist before a Gay Pride Parade in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 28, 2015.