What’s behind the evolution of President Erdogan’s narrative on LGBT issues, and how did Turkey’s Islamic conservatives find common ground with American Evangelicals? President Erdogan skipped the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris in August after his granddaughter warned him about the “LGBT show”. He berated the French organisers for “debasing humanity to a level below animals”. His anti-LGBT push is relatively recent. We take a look at one battlefield of the global culture war. Producer: Kriszta Satori Presenter: Krassi Twigg
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Big sporting competitions have the potential, like nothing else, to bring the world together in a unity of spirits and designed to celebrate human achievement and elevate the collective mood.
The Olympic Games in Paris will for many live on as a beautiful memory of the summer.
But the extraordinary opening ceremony, specifically its rainbow palette, wasn't to everyone's taste, and it came to serve as a reminder of how deeply divided the world is.
If people have taken any offense, we are, of course, really, really sorry.
Among the heavyweights to express indignation was a bishop of the Catholic Church as well as the Turkish president.
He berated the French organizers for, as he put it, debasing humanity to a level below animals.
Recep tape Erdogan explained that he decided not to attend the event after his granddaughter warned him about the LGBT show that was going to take place.
The immorality displayed at the ceremony, he said, once again highlighted the extent of the threat we face.
An MP of his AK Party went even further, calling the ceremony, and I quote, a propaganda for all kinds of perverted movements such as lgbt, pedophilia and Satanism.
None of this would have come as a surprise to those familiar with the discourse.
Populist politicians across the world, they are increasingly appearing to propel a new type of politics of perpetual culture war.
They're finding new areas to seek support on, and they're trying to rally their supporters against these issues.
In this episode of the Global Jigsaw, we ask what's behind the evolution of Erdogan's narrative on LGBT issues?
And how did Turkey's Islamic conservatives find common ground with American evangelicals?
It's a look at one battlefield of the global culture war.
Welcome to the Explanation from the BBC World Service.
I'm Krasi Twik and this is the Global Jigsaw from BBC Monitoring, where we look at the world through the lens of its media, getting past the narratives, the propaganda and the disinformation.