{"id":121694,"date":"2026-07-03T14:46:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T14:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/121694\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T14:46:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T14:46:24","slug":"turkey-blocks-lgbtq-cruise-ship-from-docking-citing-moral-values","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/121694\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey blocks LGBTQ+ cruise ship from docking, citing \u2018moral values\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Turkey has blocked an LGBTQ+ cruise ship chartered by a US travel company from docking at two Turkish ports, saying the voyage was incompatible with the country\u2019s \u201cmoral values\u201d and forcing organizers to change the Mediterranean itinerary, Turkish Minute<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office in Turkey\u2019s western Ayd\u0131n province\u00a0said\u00a0<\/a>on X that the Scarlet Lady, a Virgin Voyages cruise ship chartered by US-based Atlantis Events, would not be allowed to stop at the Aegean port of Ku\u015fadas\u0131 as scheduled on July 7 because it had been leased by groups \u201cknown for behaviors incompatible with the fabric of our society and our moral values.\u201d The ship had also been scheduled to visit \u0130stanbul later in the voyage.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office said \u201cthere is absolutely no possibility\u201d that the group would be permitted to visit the province \u201cfor an event of this nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

It added that the cancellation applied only to this voyage and would not affect other cruise traffic to Ku\u015fadas\u0131, one of Turkey\u2019s busiest cruise ports. Tourism activities in the province would continue as usual, it said.<\/p>\n

Atlantis Events, a US company that specializes in vacations for LGBTQ+ travelers, said Turkish officials had canceled both of the ship\u2019s planned stops in Turkey, which forced the company to revise the itinerary. Instead of visiting Ku\u015fadas\u0131 and \u0130stanbul, the Scarlet Lady will now call at Cairo and the Greek island of Crete.<\/p>\n

Rich Campbell, the president and CEO of Atlantis Events, said the company had never before been denied permission to dock because of the identity of its passengers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty stunning, to be honest. I mean, and the reasoning behind it is that it\u2019s a gay group,\u201d Campbell told CNN. Campbell said about 1,100 of the cruise\u2019s 1,900 passengers are from the United States, with the remainder coming from countries including the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.<\/p>\n

Rejecting suggestions that the cruise had a political purpose, Campbell said, \u201cWe are not there for anything except to spend money, have a good time, take tours and be incredibly respectful to every culture we visit.\u201d<\/p>\n

CNN reported that it had contacted Turkey\u2019s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Turkish Embassy in Washington and Virgin Voyages for comment.<\/p>\n

The planned cruise also prompted action in \u0130stanbul before its scheduled arrival. On June 27 the Beyo\u011flu District Governor\u2019s Office closed Tek Y\u00f6n, a gay bar in the city\u2019s Cihangir neighborhood, after inspections ordered by the \u0130stanbul Governor\u2019s Office. Officials said the venue was shut down because its operations violated regulations but did not specify the violations. The bar had advertised a party for cruise passengers.<\/p>\n

The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan has banned Pride marches in \u0130stanbul since 2015, citing security and public order concerns. Rights groups say restrictions on LGBTQ+ events and organizations have expanded in recent years, while Erdo\u011fan has repeatedly described LGBTQ+ rights as incompatible with traditional family values.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Turkey has blocked an LGBTQ+ cruise ship chartered by a US travel company from docking at two Turkish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[83],"tags":[422,423,425,426,312,427,428,4322,429,60144,431,131,132,155,60145],"class_list":["post-121694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-stockholm","tag-ak-party","tag-akp","tag-democracy","tag-erdogan","tag-human-rights","tag-justice","tag-law","tag-lgbtq","tag-oppression","tag-rich-campbell","tag-rule-of-law","tag-stockholm","tag-sweden","tag-turkey","tag-virgin-voyages"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116856592101905121","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}