{"id":3252,"date":"2026-06-23T21:28:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T21:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/3252\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T21:28:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T21:28:17","slug":"de-facto-state-of-emergency-ahead-of-nato-summit-in-ankara-more-than-200-detained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/3252\/","title":{"rendered":"De facto state of emergency ahead of NATO summit in Ankara: More than 200 detained"},"content":{"rendered":"

In T\u00fcrkiye, the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan has escalated its repression of the left and anti-war opposition ahead of the 36th NATO Summit, to be held in Ankara on July 7\u20138, detaining 209 people on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

In the early hours, simultaneous house raids were carried out in numerous cities, above all in Ankara. Police broke down doors and searched homes. According to figures released by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office, 209 of the 241 people for whom detention orders had been issued were taken into custody. The prosecutor\u2019s office claimed that the operation was carried out \u201cas part of efforts to expose the actions and activities of terrorist organizations across the country.\u201d Those detained were placed under a 24-hour restriction on access to a lawyer.<\/p>\n

A protest organized by the Anti-NATO and Anti-Imperialist War Alliance. June 15, 2026 [Photo: Devrimci Parti Ankara \u0130l \u00d6rg\u00fct\u00fc\/X]<\/p>\n

Among those detained for taking part in anti-NATO protests and organizing are representatives of various legal political parties and mass organizations. They include Revolutionary Party General Chair Elif Torun \u00d6neren; journalist Y\u0131ld\u0131z Tar; Peoples\u2019 Houses Association General Executive Board member Hediye Y\u0131ld\u0131r\u0131m; Pir Sultan Abdal Association Ankara Branch youth representative Ferhat Kaplan; Umut-Sen (Hope Union) spokesperson Burcu Ar\u0131kan; Ankara University Faculty of Political Science lecturer Assoc. Prof. Emel Memi\u015f; and lawyers who are members of the Progressive Lawyers Association (\u00c7HD). Members of the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations (SGDF), the Free University Movement and the People\u2019s Law Office were also detained.<\/p>\n

The Sosyalist E\u015fitlik Partisi \u2013 D\u00f6rd\u00fcnc\u00fc Enternasyonal (Socialist Equality Party-Fourth International), the Turkish section of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), demands the immediate release of the political opponents of NATO and war. The de facto state of emergency and the bans in Ankara must be lifted, and all democratic rights unconditionally guaranteed. The social force that must be mobilized against NATO and imperialist war, and in defence of democratic rights, through the building of independent rank-and-file committees, is the international working class.<\/p>\n

The operations followed the state-of-emergency-type ban announced the previous evening, on June 22, by the Ankara Governor\u2019s Office. Citing the pretext of safeguarding \u201cnational security\u201d and \u201cthe reputation of our country,\u201d and protecting \u201cthe safety of the delegations attending the summit at the highest level,\u201d the governor\u2019s office banned all assemblies, demonstrations and marches, press statements, sit-ins, rallies, hunger strikes, the setting up of stands and tents, the distribution of leaflets and the hanging of posters and banners across the city from 00:00 on June 28 until 23:59 on July 10\u2014for 13 days. <\/p>\n

Entry will also be barred to \u201cdesignated sensitive areas, above all the venues where the summit will be held, the places where the delegations will be staying and the routes along which they will travel.\u201d<\/p>\n

This wave of repression is aimed at guaranteeing that the leaders of the imperialist powers, above all US President Donald Trump, are not confronted with any protest whatsoever. To this end, the freedoms of assembly, demonstration, expression and association\u2014supposedly guaranteed by the constitution\u2014are being suspended. The unlawful detention of hundreds of people as a preventive measure ahead of the summit, and the barring political activity from the capital for 13 days in the name of \u201cpublic order,\u201d mark a significant milestone in the construction of a police state in T\u00fcrkiye.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The latest detentions are the peak of a wave of police operations now underway for weeks, and it must be expected to continue and to widen.<\/p>\n

The wave of operations began on the morning of June 12. As part of investigations centered in Eski\u015fehir and Zonguldak, simultaneous house raids were carried out in eight provinces, and 14 students who are members of the Revolutionary Youth Associations (DGD) were detained. The same day, in a separate investigation centered in Diyarbak\u0131r, five members of the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) and the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations (SGDF) were detained.<\/p>\n

These were followed by a wave of arrests<\/a> in Istanbul. On June 15, house raids and detentions were carried out against the Independent Revolutionary Class Platform (BDSP), the Revolutionary Textile Workers\u2019 Union (Dev Tekstil), the Revolutionary Youth Union (DGB), the Revolutionary Students\u2019 Union (D\u00d6B), the Workers\u2019 Unity Association, the\u00a0League of Struggle\u00a0journal and the Federation of Socialist Councils (SMF). Of the 23 people brought before the courthouse on June 18, 21 were arrested.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, since June 14, private-sector teachers<\/a>\u2014who have launched a struggle and gone on hunger strike in Ankara demanding a decent salary, humane working conditions and appointment of teachers victimized by the interview (oral examination) system\u2014have faced mounting police violence and detentions. \u00a0The governor\u2019s banning of \u201chunger strikes\u201d in Ankara is aimed directly at the teachers.<\/p>\n

The Erdo\u011fan government is responding to the intensifying imperialist war on T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s borders and to the deepening class struggle at home by consolidating its construction of a presidential dictatorship. Erdo\u011fan is doing this with the approval of his imperialist NATO allies, above all the United States, and on behalf of the Turkish ruling class.<\/p>\n

Erdo\u011fan leads NATO\u2019s second-largest army. Amid the US war against Iran and the NATO war against Russia, Ankara is strengthening its ties with its imperialist allies. The reinforcement of NATO\u2019s presence in T\u00fcrkiye with additional air defence systems and a new army corps, and the establishment of a naval headquarters in Istanbul together with Britain and France as part of the \u201cCoalition of the Willing\u201d against Russia, are signs of this. As the host of the summit, Ankara is signalling to Washington and the European capitals that any mass opposition to war, genocide and militarism will be suppressed.<\/p>\n

The NATO leaders for whom Ankara will roll out the red carpet support war against Iran and Israel\u2019s genocide against the Palestinians; they are slashing social spending as they plunge into an arms race; and they are attacking democratic rights.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

There is deep opposition among workers and young people in T\u00fcrkiye to US imperialism, NATO and war. For the masses, the US and NATO mean nothing but wars and military coups. According to a survey conducted by Areda Survey in March, more than 90 percent of the population is opposed to the US-Israeli war against Iran and to the US bases in the country.<\/p>\n

Despite its rhetorical criticisms of Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s government, the Erdo\u011fan government continues to mediate the shipment of critical Azerbaijani oil to Israel. Ankara played a key role in the agreement that imposed capitulation on Hamas, and it joined Trump\u2019s \u201cBoard of Peace,\u201d which legitimizes Israel\u2019s occupation of Gaza. Political opposition to these policies has been met with violent police repression from the very outset of the genocide.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the NATO bases in T\u00fcrkiye have continued to provide logistical support for the wars the US is waging for control over the Middle East. While Ankara refused to condemn the US in the war against Iran, it condemned Iran\u2019s legitimate retaliatory strikes in self-defence.<\/p>\n

The mounting state repression ahead of the NATO summit lays bare the connection between the struggle against imperialism and war and the struggle to defend democratic rights. The fight against war and dictatorship\u2014both products of the crisis of the global capitalist system\u2014can be carried forward only as an international and socialist struggle based on the working class. This in turn requires a break with all the parties of the capitalist order, which are inherently incapable of defending democratic rights, and the building of the Sosyalist E\u015fitlik Partisi as the revolutionary leadership of the working class.<\/p>\n

On the basis of this perspective, the Sosyalist E\u015fitlik Partisi calls on workers and young people to take action against NATO and imperialism around the following demands:<\/p>\n

The US and Israeli war against Iran, the invasion of Lebanon, and the genocide in Gaza must be halted immediately and unconditionally.All US armed forces in the Middle East must be withdrawn, and the military bases\u2014including those in T\u00fcrkiye\u2014that form the infrastructure of imperialist domination must be closed.The NATO summit scheduled for July in Ankara must be cancelled. T\u00fcrkiye must withdraw from NATO; NATO must be dissolved; and all resources devoted to militarism and war must be redirected to meet the needs of society.All sanctions and economic warfare against Iran, Cuba, Russia and other countries must be ended.All war criminals must be held accountable.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All political prisoners who have been detained or arrested must be immediately released; all bans trampling democratic rights must be lifted; the fundamental democratic rights of the Kurdish people must be recognised.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the WSWS email newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In T\u00fcrkiye, the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan has escalated its repression of the left and anti-war…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2515,543,2336,940,156,7,137,542,130],"class_list":["post-3252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-akp","tag-ankara","tag-erdogan","tag-eu","tag-iran","tag-nato","tag-summit","tag-turkiye","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}