LGBTs Contest New Army Discipline Act

The new act proposed by Turkish Armed Forces counted homosexuality as "unnatural relationship" with its subjects being discharged from the army once discovered.

Kaos GL, an LGBT organization based in Istanbul, told bianet the former act also punished homosexual soldiers but never used the term "homosexual" in a direct manner.

"In terms of punishment, that makes no difference. But we strongly protest the definition of homosexuality as "unnatural relationship".

"Army's trying to criminalize homosexuality"

"Turkish Army is in perfect harmony with AKP government. For years, homosexuals in Turkey were humiliated with 'pink' discharge certificates. Now the army is taking this humiliation into a higher level," Gökkuşağı Kızılları, another LGBT association, said in a statement.

The association claimed that the new draft might pave the way to the criminalization of homosexuality in Turkey, equalizing homosexuality with crimes like murder, corruption and fraud.  "The new draft will encourage attack on the LGBT community in Turkey."

The statement urged the government to work on regulations to prevent hate crimes: "We will not yield to AKP government's desires to create a conservative society. Instead of trying to define homosexuality, they must define hate crimes." (GBK/ÇT)