Hakan Tas – a journalist and gay rights activists was elected to Berlin Parliament from The Left (Die Linke) party.

In his interview to Turkish Hurriyet Daily News Tas noted that Turkish President Abdullah Gul congratulated him during his visit to Germany.

“People in Germany are used to gay politicians; the mayor of Berlin is gay, as is Germany’s ministry of foreign affairs. As a rough estimate, we assume that some 8 percent of the 2.5 million Turks here are gay. However, not everyone is open about their sexual identity and this is not an easy thing to do,” Tas said.

He mentioned that about five thousand people joined the annual gay parade held in Istanbul.

Tas characterized the banning the access to two major LGBT sites, the official websites of gay organizations Kaos GL and LambdaIstanbul by the Turkish Parliament as violation of human rights.

“That’s definitely against human rights and it is a big mistake by the Parliament. These are legal associations approved by Turkish authorities. Turkey needs to let its politicians do politics freely.”