Turkish Interior Minister Soylu targets cream advertisement for 'evoking lesbianism'

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Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu on May 2 stated that his ministry will contact the Trade Ministry for the ban of a cream advertisement on the grounds that it was “immoral,” according to the state-run Anadolu Agency. The advertisement in question reads "As natural as being close to girl to girl" and its banners have been placed on billboards at bus stops. 

“They say (President) Tayyip Erdoğan should go, my dear fellow citizens. If Tayyip Erdoğan should go, who should come? God forbid. I don't know if you've seen an advertisement at the bus stops. A cream... It says it's so natural. It's as natural as being close to girl to girl. God forgive me, this is where they want to bring Turkey,” he said.  

"We talked with our Trade Minister and will remove those ads completely. This is simple as that. We can't accept such an ad. It is not possible to accept an ad that is against our people's morality, people's structure," he said. 

The original ad of the hair product company says, "It's natural as dating as girls."

Soylu also claimed that “LGBT characters are being squeezed into television series” and said, "Why? They try to acclimatize our people.” 

He then targeted the opposition bloc Nation Alliance’s presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and stated, “Kılıçdaroğlu said he will accept all kinds of sexual orientation. They are bringing the marriage of man and man, woman and woman to Turkey as a proposal. Why? Because they could not destroy us for years. We have a strong family structure."

In the run-up to the elections on May 14, the government increasingly targets the LGBTI+ community in Turkey and attacks the opposition on if they made an “inclusive” statement regarding the LGBTI+s. 

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ on May 1 had said, "There are those who are in many efforts to legitimize and normalize LGBT and many perversions. It is the primary duty of states to protect every member of society against negativities, against deviant and perverted understandings."

In another statement, Soylu had said, "I don't want to make you sick to your stomach by saying that they want to legitimize all the sexual orientations; men and men, women and women, going further. You know, when they say LGBT+Q, it also includes the marriage of animals and humans."

Erdoğan on May 1 had said, "Under the leadership of Kılıçdaroğlu and his cohorts, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) has become a battering ram for marginal organizations, LGBT advocates, globalists, and those trying to stir up sectarianism."