トルコ大統領、ＬＧＢＴの若者を非難　学生集会で約１６０人逮捕

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】トルコの学生による抗議集会で、イスラム教の聖地とLGBT（性的少数者）を象徴する虹色の旗「レインボーフラッグ」を並べて描いた絵が掲げられたことを受け、レジェプ・タイップ・エルドアン大統領は1日、トルコのLGBT運動は「破壊行為」だと非難した。（写真はイスタンブールのボアジチ大学の外で警官に拘束される女性）
　先週末、イスタンブールにあるボアジチ大学で行われた学生集会では、イスラム教の聖地とレインボーフラッグを一緒に描いたとして４人が逮捕された。
　１日、これを非難するエルドアン大統領の演説が放送されて間もなく、同大学では再び抗議集会が行われた。ソーシャルメディアに投稿された映像によると、警察は平和的に抗議していた学生らを引きずって連行した。現場にいたＡＦＰの記者らも、何人かの学生が警察に引きずられる様子を目撃している。イスタンブール県知事によると、１５９人の逮捕が確認されている。
　エルドアン氏は、「わが国の若者たちを、ＬＧＢＴの若者としてではなく、わが国の輝かしい過去に生きた若者として未来へと導いていく」と、与党・公正発展党の党員へ向けた動画メッセージで発言。さらに「あなたたちはＬＧＢＴの若者でも、破壊行為をする若者でもない。それどころか、あなたたちは傷ついた心を修復する人たちだ」と述べた。
　人権団体らはエルドアン氏が１８年に及ぶ在任期間を通じ、大半の国民がイスラム教徒であるものの公式には世俗国家であるトルコの社会を、保守的な方向へ導いていると非難している。
　トルコでは先月、エルドアン氏が自らに忠実な人物をボアジチ大学の学長に任命したことがきっかけで、学生による抗議行動が相次いでいた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/02/02-12:56）

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday lashed out at Turkey's LGBT movement, accusing it of vandalism following an outbreak of student protests.
Four people were arrested over the weekend for depicting Islam's holiest site with pictures of the LGBT rainbow flag during a rally at Istanbul's Bogazici University.
And shortly after Erdogan's televised speech on Monday, another rally erupted at the same school with dozens of people detained and social media footage showing police dragging away students who had been protesting peacefully.
We will carry our young people to the future, not as the LGBT youth, but as the youth that existed in our nation's glorious past, Erdogan said during a video linkup with members of his ruling AK Party.
You are not the LGBT youth, not the youth who commit acts of vandalism. On the contrary, you are the ones who repair broken hearts.
- 'Inciting hatred' -
Rights groups accuse Erdogan of taking the mostly Muslim but officially secular country on an increasingly socially conservative course during his 18 years in power.
Homosexuality has been legal throughout modern Turkey's history.
But gay people often face harassment, and LGBT events -- including Istanbul Pride -- have been blocked under Erdogan.
Turkey was hit by a wave of student protests last month after Erdogan appointed a loyalist as the head of Bogazici University.
During one demonstration last Friday protesters hung an artwork opposite the new rector's office depicting the holy site in Mecca and images of the LGBT movement's rainbow flag.
Turkish police accused four people of inciting hatred in the population. Two of them have been remanded in custody and the other two placed under house arrest.
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu branded the suspects four LGBT freaks.
Groups of students once again demonstrated at Bogazici university on Monday despite the presence of hundreds of riot police, demanding the four be freed and the rector stand down.
AFP reporters saw several students dragged away by the police and Istanbul's governor later confirmed 159 people had been arrested.
Further afield in the Aegean resort city of Izmir, social media posts showed police scuffling with a small group of rainbow flag-waving students.
The rallies have echoes of the 2013 protests that sprang up against plans to demolish an Istanbul park before spreading nationally and presenting a direct challenge to Erdogan's rule.
Erdogan last month accused some of those taking part in the student demonstrations of being terrorists.