Turkish police on Sunday raided the Pride Parade in Istanbul, detaining at least 15 people for participating in a banned LGBTQ+ rally, according to accounts from participants and witness testimony to Reuters.

Turkish police blocked metro stations and obstructed traffic on the primary roads in central European Istanbul. In response, the demonstrators held their rally on Istanbul’s Asian side for roughly ten minutes, before dispersing upon the arrival of police.

A Pride representative on X (formerly Twitter) stated, “You halted life in a whole city, but forgot one thing: if necessary, we can pierce through stones, bend time, and once again find each other in our smiles.” They went on to add, “We never get tired of deceiving the police and forcing them to deal with us. We called for our existence in various parts of the city every day.”

A similar incident occurred at last year’s banned pride event where several people were also arrested for participating.

President Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted AK Party has toughened its rhetoric against the LGBTQ+ community over the past decade and banned pride marches since 2015, citing “security reasons.” LGBTQ+ people in Turkey have been a regular target of scorn from Erdogan, who has depicted them as posing a threat to family values. However, homosexuality is not illegal in the country.

According to the Istanbul pride committee on X (formerly Twitter), all of the detainees have been released from custody.