Turkey's Crackdown Is Getting Worse. Here's How LGBTQ+ Professionals There Can Find Employers Who Will Have Their Back

Between 12 and 14 September, Turkish police raided LGBTQ+ community centres, organisations and the homes of activists in a coordinated operation the government called "My Family Is Safe". More than a hundred people were arrested, at least 83 were remanded in custody, and over 160 are now under criminal investigation. Another hundred or so were detained for protesting the raids, though they were later released.

A new analysis from Voxeurop, the European journalism cooperative, lays out how this fits a longer pattern, and why nobody who watches Turkey expects it to stop.

What happened, and what came before

The official grounds for the arrests were obscenity, sex work and drugs. Alongside them came a wave of censorship: websites, social media accounts and media outlets connected to LGBTQ+ and human rights work were blocked. The opposition news site T24 was shut off because 118 of its articles might constitute "LGBT propaganda". A journalist, Tuğba Tekerek, is in pre-trial detention along with seven members of Kaos GL, the country's longest-standing LGBTQ+ rights organisation, on the unproven claim that she ran the group's Instagram account.

None of this came out of nowhere. Istanbul Pride has been banned since 2015. Turkey pulled out of the Istanbul Convention on violence against women in 2021, citing the risk of "normalising homosexuality". Erdoğan made attacks on LGBTQ+ people a centrepiece of his 2023 campaign. The same government has jailed Istanbul's mayor, its main political rival, since March 2025.

Yildiz Tar, who edits Kaos GL's magazine, told the Turkish outlet The Amargi that the government reaches for anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment whenever it is under pressure on something else. The economy, in other words. Ümit Metin of ACORT, which represents the Turkish community in France, reads the September operation as the opening of Erdoğan's campaign for an unconstitutional fourth term in 2028, and expects the repression to escalate.

The international response

The EU called the arrests "extremely worrying" and said it has raised them through diplomatic channels. More than 450 organisations signed a joint statement demanding the release of those still held and an end to the raids. France's LGBTI+ Federation called it a round-up and asked the French government to say so publicly. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both published detailed accounts.

What has been largely absent is anything with consequences. ACORT puts that down to the EU's 2015 migration deal with Turkey and the economic ties that go with it, and is now asking France to prepare for the people who may leave.

What this means at work

Turkey has never had legal protection against discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity. What has changed since September is that association with LGBTQ+ organisations, or even content, can now be a criminal matter. That reaches into the workplace. Employee networks, Pride communications and inclusion training are suddenly harder to run safely for Turkish staff, and local companies with no international backing are unlikely to try.

The practical reality for a lot of LGBTQ+ professionals in Turkey is that the employer matters more than it used to. An organisation with a global inclusion policy, an active LGBTQ+ network and leadership that has publicly committed to its queer staff is a very different place to work from one that will drop you the moment there is pressure.

Finding those employers on myGwork

This is the part of the problem we can help with directly.

As of today there are 133 live roles in Turkey on the myGwork jobs board, every one of them with an employer that has committed to LGBTQ+ inclusion as a condition of being on the platform. The companies currently hiring are:

• Allianz
• Amazon (including AWS)
• Thermo Fisher Scientific
• Novartis
• Pfizer
• Nike
• JTI
• Philip Morris International
• S&P Global
• ABB
• Coca-Cola
• Avery Dennison
• Danaher
• Mars
• WPP
• Soho House
• RWS
• United Nations

Or see every Turkey role in one place: mygwork.com/jobs?location=Turkey

Most of the roles are in Istanbul, with others in Ankara, İzmir, Adana, Kocaeli, Tekirdağ, Antalya and Şanlıurfa, and a handful are fully remote. They range from pharma sales and clinical research to insurance, logistics, tech, retail and hospitality, and from internships to director level. Allianz, Amazon and Thermo Fisher have the most openings.

These are international companies with global inclusion policies, LGBTQ+ employee networks and, in most cases, partner benefits that do not depend on Turkish law. That does not make a Turkish office immune to what is happening outside it. It does mean there is a policy, a network and a head office to turn to if something goes wrong.

If you are in Turkey and thinking about your next move:

Browse the jobs board at mygwork.com/jobs and filter by Turkey, or tick remote-only. Remote and hybrid roles with companies headquartered elsewhere are often the quickest route to an employer whose inclusion policies do not depend on where you sit.

Read the employer profiles at mygwork.com/organizations. Each one sets out what the company has actually done on LGBTQ+ inclusion, not just what it says. Look at the ones above, and at the ones in countries you might move to.

Join WorkFair on 4 November. myGwork's virtual career fair runs from 11am to 7pm GMT and is free. It puts you in direct conversation with recruiters from inclusive employers across Europe and beyond, from home, and nobody needs to know you attended. Full details and registration are at mygwork.com/workfair.

Use the community. myGwork members include LGBTQ+ professionals in Turkey and Turkish professionals who have relocated. The mentoring programme and member directory are a way to ask the questions you cannot ask at your current job: which companies are good, which offices are safe, how relocation worked for someone else.

A note on safety

Given the censorship and surveillance described above, think about what is visible on your profile. You control how much of your profile is public. You do not have to be out on it, and you do not have to use your full name to browse jobs or attend WorkFair. If you are worried about how a Turkish employer or anyone else might see your activity, make the profile private and reach out to the myGwork team at [email protected]. We will help you set things up.

To employers with staff in Turkey

If you have people on the ground, now is the time to check in with them, quietly and without putting anyone on the spot. Make sure they know what support exists, whether that is legal help, a relocation policy or just someone in HR who understands the situation. And be careful about what you ask local staff to do publicly in the name of inclusion. The commitment should be the company's, not theirs to carry.

The organisations we work with have chosen to be visible about where they stand. In Turkey right now, that choice has weight.

Source: Adrian Burtin, "No end in sight to Turkey's LGBT+ crackdown", Voxeurop, 27 October 2026. Additional reporting: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch.