Forrest Walker, “Police Walk”. Walker describes this shot, taken in 2015 at the last officially permitted Pride parade in Istanbul, as a tense and surreal experience. His focus is on a woman walking calmly in front of a line of riot police, her attitude part defiance and part performance. (Photo by Forrest Walker/All About Photo awards 2025 via The Guardian)

A couple dance by the Golden Horn leading to the Bosphorus Strait separating Europe and Asia, in Istanbul, Friday, May 14, 2021. (Photo by Emrah Gurel/AP Photo)

Suat Demir, a 52-year-old parter, smokes a cigarette after finishing his work day in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, October 2, 2025. (Photo by Emrah Gurel/AP Photo)

A Loggerhead sea turtle named Gal Handless is moved into a large case at the rescue center for sea turtles as it is transferred to the Istanbul Aquarium on May 29, 2013 in Michmoret, Israel. The turtle was rescued after losing her front fins when caught in a fishing net in 2004. She was rehabilitated at the rescue center but could not be returned back to the sea and now after 9 years she is being transferred to her new home at the Istanbul Aquarium in Turkey. (Photo by Uriel Sinai)

People attend a wounded man after an explosion in Istikla Street in central Istanbul, Turkey on November 13, 2022. According to governor Ali Yerlikaya, an explosion that occurred at roughly 4.20 p.m. local time has resulted in losses and injuries. Emergency personnel were dispatched to the incident. (Photo by Ihlas News Agency (IHA) via Reuters)

Artist Sayna Soleimanpour performs a photoshoot in protest against the mistreatment and alienation of Turkish women based on their clothing, during a two-day curfew amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on a deserted street in Istanbul, Turkey, early December 6, 2020. (Photo by Umit Bektas/Reuters)

Contestants prepare backstage during the Angel of Turkey transgender/transsexual beauty pageant in Istanbul, Turkey, late May 26, 2016. (Photo by Murad Sezer/Reuters)

A demonstrator dances as riot police try to prevent LGBT rights activists gather for a Pride parade, which was banned by local authorities, in central in Istanbul, Turkey on June 26, 2021. (Photo by Dilara Senkaya/Reuters)