Call From Montenegrin LGBT Organization: Never Hush, Never Share the Crime!

Upon the recently rising killings and violence against the trans community in Turkey, the Director of LGBT Forum Progres Zdravko Cimbaljevic sent out a call for international support for solidarity.

 

Dear friends and colleagues, 

 

As we all know LGB and especially T people in Turkey are facing severe problems in everyday life. 

 

Transgender persons are the most exposed to these problems such as violence on the streets, bulling, verbal violence and other forms of discrimination. But the most chocking fact is the murders that have happened in the past few months that all of you have probably heard of. 

 

One of the last cases is the case of young girl named Tuğçe. She was shot by a bullet and murdered in a car in Karabağlar town in İzmir. She was only 23 years old. Her body was unrecognizable because of the assault she was exposed to.

 

Information we got from our friends from Turkey few months ago shocked us that around 20 transpeople are being murdered each year. This hate needs to be stopped! 

 

Second transgender person has been killed in the same week in which Tuğçe was killed. She was stabbed around 40 times to her death. Her name was Nüket. After few days we heard from our friends from Turkey  that the murderer was caught. After being questioned he tried to justify himself by stating that he lost his consciousness. We all know that this is an obvious lie, used by almost every trans murderer.  He stated that she invited him to her apartment and he came. Then, they argued about the money that he would give to her. Then he stated that he don’t remember that he used the knife that many times, saying that he lost his consciousness!? 

 

As these two unfortunate murders are not enough just a while they happened there was another incident towards the transgender person that happened in Maltepe – Istanbul. Namely the incident involved a police officer who shot a transgender sex worker in the back after he grabbed her arm forcefully because she refused to pay a fine.

 

These incidents are outrageous and we need to put a stop on them! 

 

Even if we are from Montenegro and we do not live in Turkey we sympathize with all of them who are paying the price of being different! We would like you to do the same.

 

Therefore we have decided to make a protest action in front of the Turkish Embassy in Montenegro on 16th of May related to International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia on the 17th of May (IDAHO) and through this protest express our sympathies with aim to point out the need of change in respecting human rights of LGB and especially T people in Turkey. 

 

As we want to make this visible on international level we use this opportunity to invite all of you who are interested to join us in our common goal  to improve the respecting of LGBT Human Rights, not only in Turkey but in the region and show our solidarity towards each other.

 

As our colleagues from Turkey have said before: “We cannot remain silent about being murdered and about the murderers’ being released! We do not “get used to, get familiar with” and cannot stand the murders of trans individuals and we stand against the system which “normalizes, internalizes and gets inured to them” in the hands of the media and the society!”

 

Our plan is to make joint letter from all the interested sides (organizations/individuals) that will be delivered to all the Turkish Embassies in the involved countries (addressed to Ambassadors and the President of Turkey) in which we will point out the problems that transgender people experience every day. 

The purpose of this letter is to make a statement that will draw attention of the governments, media and decision makers to the ever growing problems of the LGBTIQ community and also on the better relations and strong solidarity of the LGBTIQ community/organizations in the region and in the World.

 

LGBT Forum Progress is planning to go in front of the Turkish Embassy with joint letter, rainbow flags, framed photos of the murdered Tuğçe and Nüket, posters, banners made by our volunteers and we will bring flowers for paying the respect to the deceased ones and for all of those victims who suffered the same or similar discrimination just based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

 

All of you who are willing to participate will receive the draft of the letter in the following days and the content of the letter will be open for the suggestions that you may all have until the 15th of May. Please send us confirmation of your participation or support as soon as you can so we can include you in our mailing list.

 

If you are interested to participate in joint action and to make Turkish government aware of problems of LGBT community in their country, and help our friends and colleagues in Turkish LGBTIQ organizations, please let us know and we can organize this action/protest together on the same day. 

 

Please forward this mail to all of those organizations and individuals who by your opinion would want to participate and give their support. 

 

Thank you in advance. 

 

Yours,

 

Zdravko Cimbaljevic

Executive Director

Cell: 0038267302312

 

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LGBT Forum Progres 

Podgorica, Montenegro

E-mail: info@lgbtprogres.me

Web: www.lgbtprogres.me