ISTANBUL — Turkey lashed out at “LGBT propaganda,” claiming it undermined free speech, and defended the head of the Turkish Red Crescent after the humanitarian organization’s international umbrella body said his comments violated its rules against homophobia.

Kerem Kinik, who also serves as one of five vice-presidents at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), appeared to equate homosexuality with pedophilia in a tweet he made Sunday, when the Turkish LGBTI community typically celebrates Pride Day.

“We will not allow human dignity to be trampled. We will protect natality and the mental health of our children. We will fight whomever violates healthy creation, uses the power of communication to portray the abnormal as normal [and] injects their pedophilic fantasies into young minds as if it were modernity,” Kinik wrote.

His use of the words “dignity,” adopted by the Turkish LGBTI community for their march, and “natality” for birth rate, were interpreted as veiled barbs at the gay community. Kinik later said his tweet was about protecting children and that his approach was “fully coherent” with IFRC values.