Support for Tarlabaşı Community Association, which has been working for fifteen years to establish safe spaces where children and women can come together, is threatened to be shut down.
The Association, which has been targeted by the defamation news of some media organs since June 25, 2021, passed various inspections in the period of June-September 2021. After the inspections, two separate lawsuits were filed against the center.
The first trial of the lawsuit demanding the determination of the association has ended by itself on the ground that "the realization of the purpose of the association has become impossible", will be held at the Istanbul 8th Civil Court of Peace on Thursday, 14 April 2022 at 11.45.
With the indictment issued by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, the first trial of the case for the dissolution of the association on the grounds of "contrary to law and morality" will be held at the Istanbul 18th Civil Court of First Instance on May 18, 2022. The injunction to "withdraw from activities" against the association within the scope of the lawsuit was lifted on 6 April upon the application of the TTM.
Media targeted, inspections started
TTM planned a volunteer event where Kaos GL Association's guide on "How Should LGBTI+ Students Be Protected Against Family and School Clamps?" will be discussed, but the event was targeted by the media. Hate speech, targeting, and defamation continued and became widespread systematically until February 9, 2022.
Right after the targeting in the media, the Social Services Unit of the Beyoğlu District Directorate of the Ministry of Family and Social Services visited the association on 25 June. Four days later, the inspection of the Istanbul Provincial Directorate of Civil Society Relations began. No results were reached to the association regarding the visit or the inspection. On the other hand, on 19 July, the Child Branch of the Security Directorate took the statement of the Chairman of the Board within the scope of the "obscenity crime". The investigation ended with no follow-up. The audit that led to lawsuits against the association was carried out by the Ministry of Interior Associations Auditors between July 26 and August 20, 2021.
They learned about lawsuit from the media targeting
TTM was able to learn about the audit results only from the reports and annexes submitted to the "detection of absence" and "dissolution of the association" case files filed against them. The first lawsuit filed against the association is the "detection of absence" lawsuit. The first hearing of the case brought by the Istanbul Governor's Office will be held at the Istanbul 8th Civil Court of Peace on Thursday, April 14, at 11.45 am.
The association was only informed about the second lawsuit filed through the media. On February 9, when a new case was mentioned in the headline of the Milat newspaper, which started the entire defamation process, the lawyers of the association received information from the courthouse and learned that a case of termination had been filed against the association on February 10. The justification of the case is that while the association claims that it has become "contrary to the law and morality", none of the actions listed in the lawsuit are so intense that they will result in termination, but there are deficiencies in the book records that may result in administrative fines, whether educational activities are allowed or not, and the publications of the association are not reported to the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. In addition, while the association's statements about LGBTI+s were included in the report of the auditors, which formed the basis of the case, as "obscenity" in an unlawful and discriminatory manner; fundamental rights and freedoms of LGBTI+s were also fell into the report and the court case with the statements that "try to influence children's sexual identities by normalizing the sexual orientations of people have known in society as LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transvestite, intersex)".
The annulment case will be heard at the Istanbul 18th Civil Court of First Instance on Wednesday, May 18 at 10:45.