The Turkish government wants to further restrict the rights of LGBTQ people. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan this week announced constitutional amendments to protect "family values". On Wednesday, Erdoğan called on the opposition to support new amendments granting Muslim women who cover their hair constitutional recognition of their rights to education and employment, after Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the secular Republican People's Party (CHP), proposed a new law that would provide similar guarantees. Erdoğan also said his government planned to propose constitutional amendments to protect the family. Later in the week, Erdoğan said that "some powers" were exploiting the problem of LGBTQ people to destroy the Turkish family structure.

Citing sources in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Altan Sancar, a journalist in Ankara, said during a broadcast on YouTube on Friday that the government may propose an amendment to the definition of the family in Article 41 of the Constitution that would target not only LGBTQ people but all types of relationships outside marriage.

According to Yıldız Tar of KAOS GL, a well-known LGBTQ organisation, the government has declared war on feminists and LGBTQ people. The changes proposed by the government could be similar to those already passed in Hungary, Tar told Gazete Duvar.

Lawyer Emrah Şahin assesses Erdoğan's announcements as a move in the run-up to the upcoming elections to consolidate conservative voters. However, he also points out the implications: "If he introduces a new law against LGBTQ people and includes sexual orientation and gender identity in the law, it means the de facto recognition of LGBTQ people. Until today, these people didn't even exist in his eyes."