Governing Justice & Development Party that has been targeting the LGBTI+ communities and Pride Week activities harshly over the last few years has increased its pressure in recent months. Lately concernign all legislative actions of the party there has been made claims of combatting the LGBTI+ agenda, be it the multiple bar associations bill, or withdrawal from The Council of Europe's Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence [known as the Istanbul Convention] or even the Digital Platforms Regulation. Most recently AKP vice chair & İzmir deputy Hamza Dağ came out against the rainbow images in his city.
AKP vice chair & İzmir deputy Hamza Dağ shared a manipulated image claiming CHP İzmir Metropolitan Mayor Tunç Soyer is subliminally propagating LGBTI+ agenda, in comparison to previous CHP mayor Kocaoğlu's term. AKP's Dağ tagged the CHP İzmir mayor Soyer asking "what message is this?" implying that the rainbows represent the LGBTI+ movement.
TARGETTING THE RAINBOW
The images that AKP's Hamza Dağ claimed to be propagating LGBTI+ agenda subliminally under Tunç Soyer's mayorship, have been revealed to be from 2017 when İzmir Konak Municipality had initiated milk for refugee children. The municipality had distributed milk for 3,000 Syrian refugee children that were residing in the district and the photos were from this campaign.
"COLORFUL COLUMNS: PROPAGANDA"
AKP vice chair & İzmir deputy Hamza Dağ then continued to criticize CHP İzmir Metropolitan Municipality for the colorful columns at the entrance of the municipal building, claiming "colorful colours have an implication of the LGBTI+ which legitimizes pedophilia & incest." 
Recently governing AKP and its supporters have been attempting to equate the LGBTI+ communities with promoting pedophilia, child abuse and incest. Dağ said "Mr. Soyer can paint his office whatever color he likes but a public building cannot be painted in the colors of pedophilia and incest, legitimizing these acts. We will never allow legitimation of such perversions in İzmir" ignoring the fact that LGBTI+ movements have been struggling for gender equality and fighting against child abuse and pedophilia for long years.
İZMİR MAYOR RESPONDED
CHP İzmir Metropolitan Mayor Tunç Soyer responded to the calls from AKP deputy Dağ, "this is the first time I see someone picking a fight with colors in politics; this is abdication of reason. For example, look at the grain silos in İzmir; they were the color of concrete-grey for 60 years, during the time of previous mayor Piriştina they were painted in the colors of rainbow and they brightened the city. They inspired the region. Colors are life, they calm the mind. Perhaps our friends are not aware of this. Changing the color of our columns is not even to be discussed."
RED CRESCENT CHAIR HAD DRAWN THE SAME PARALLEL BEFORE
Previously the head of Turkish Red Crescent and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Vice President, Kerem Kınık had also published a message on the Pride Week implying an equation between the LGBTI+ individuals and pedophilia by saying “We will not allow human-pride be trampled. We will defend the creation and our children’s spiritual wellness. We will continuously fight against anyone that penetrates into young minds claiming it at modernity in the dreams of pedophilia, presenting abnormalities as normal through communications, disturbing the healthy creation. There is no such thing!”
