Turkish court closes Istanbul gay association

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish court closed Istanbul's only gay rights association on Thursday after the prosecutor said it broke public morality laws.

The prosecutor argued the association's aims broke the law for the protection of family and public morality, and a court ruled in favour of closing the association.

LambdaIstanbul, set up in 1993, will be the first gay rights association to be closed in the European Union candidate nation.

Homosexuality is legal in Turkey and central Istanbul has a thriving gay night scene, but there are no laws to protect gay men and lesbians from discrimination.

State-run Anatolian news agency said the judge made the ruling at a court in Istanbul's central Beyoglu district.

"We are in a country where a closure case has been opened against the ruling party. The political atmosphere is anti-democratic and it lacks tolerance," Bawer Cakir, a gay rights activist in LambdaIstanbul, told Reuters.

Turkey's ruling AK Party faces possible closure in a Constitutional Court case, and 71 members including Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan could be banned, because of alleged anti-secular activities.

The association will appeal against the court decision at the Court of Appeals and, if necessary, will go to the European Court of Human Rights, Cakir said.