An Istanbul court of the first instance delivered a landmark ruling saying that gay sex is natural, contradicting a previous ruling by Turkey’s supreme court.

Yesterday’s (18 February) ruling regarded a trader who was caught selling 125 DVDs of gay and group sex porn.

The person, known only by his initials, DM, faced up to four years imprisonment according to article 262/2 of the Turkish penal code that prohibits owning, trafficking, distributing and publishing ‘unnatural sex’ videos.

Judge Mahmut Erdemli, however, ruled that sexual orientation can not be considered as ‘unnatural’ and should be respected.

The ruling contradicted a previous decision of Turkey’s supreme court that did include gay sex in the category of ‘unnatural sex’.

In support of his decision Erdemli cited examples of the legality of gay marriages in Europe and North America.

Erdemli differentiated gay sex from necrophilia and bistiality which he agreed were right to be classified as ‘unnatural’.

Erdemli was quoted by the daily Haber Turk as saying: ‘Today, it is possible to have gay marriages in modern countries.

‘International regulations prohibit discrimination regarding peoples’ sexual preference, and it is therefore an obligation to respect their sexual orientation…

‘In this respect, most of the European countries see gay relationships as equivalent to marriage…

‘Contemporary societies allow [gay relationships] to achieve this legal status and therefore the contents of the DVDs can not be seen as unnatural’.

The court did not find DM guilty of selling ‘unnatural’ porn but of ‘unauthorized’ selling of porn with a punishment of 8 months imprisonment.

Turkey’s criminal division of the supreme court, however, criticized the ruling saying that gay and group sex are unnatural and that the court was wrong not to accept them as a crime.

Last year, in a ruling on a similar case of porn videos sales, Turkey’s supreme court of appeals in Ankara (the country’s capital) ruled as ‘unnatural’ any acts of gay sex, oral, anal or group sex – including SM – as well as necrophilia and bestiality.

The supreme court provided for the imprisonment of any persons in possession of videos depicting such sex scenes on the basis of Article 262/2 of the Turkish criminal code.

The court set a minimum punishment of one year, and a maximum of four years imprisonment.

The supreme court’s ruling of 2012 rejected a six-month sentence imposed by a provincial court for the selling of pornographic videos with ‘unnatural’ content saying the ruling was too lenient.

A spokesperson for Turkish LGBT rights group KAOS GL told GayStarNews: ‘The decision given by the court yesterday is not binding.

‘However it is a positive development that may affect a future ruling by Turkey’s supreme court.

‘Even if the supreme court will not accept this ruling – this sets a very positive precedent for future cases’.