Turkey arrests 178 on terrorism charges and blankets Ankara with security ahead of NATO summit

The arrests

A total of 225 people were detained during preventive raids on June 23, and 178 were later placed in pre-trial detention, Ankara prosecutors said via state news agency Anadolu. Among those taken into custody are journalists, academics, lawyers, trade unionists, teachers, students and civil society representatives. The Turkish NGO MLSA said detainees were told they "could commit a terrorist act in order to make Turkey be perceived as a country associated with terrorism."

Environmental volunteers from the TEMA Foundation figured prominently. More than three dozen mostly retired volunteers in their sixties and seventies were arrested after a picnic at a bird sanctuary. During interrogations they were asked about membership in the banned Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist (TKP/ML), the use of code names, and whether they had received weapons training. One 79-year-old activist had difficulty climbing the stairs.

The editor-in-chief of the LGBTQ+ magazine Kaos GL, Yildiz Tar, was also detained. Instead of NATO-related questions, police reportedly asked about his position on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s "Year of the Family" initiative promoting traditional family values. Economy professor Emel Memis of Ankara University and TEMA representative Nevzat Ozer are among the others in pre-trial detention. Of the 225 originally held, 34 were released under judicial supervision.

The summit security setup

Ankara is being turned into a fortress for the July 7-8 meeting of the 32-nation alliance. President Donald Trump will attend, saying he comes "only out of respect for President Erdoğan." A 70,000-strong security force will be deployed, almost triple the number used at the 2025 NATO summit in The Hague. All public assemblies, demonstrations, poster displays, press conferences and even university exams in Ankara have been banned from June 29 for 12 days. Civil servants have been given the entire summit week off to clear the streets. A new high-security airport near the city centre, opened by Erdoğan this month, will handle arriving leaders.

Independent Turkish journalists have been denied accreditation to the summit. NATO spokeswoman Allison Hart said the alliance relies on the host-country’s assessments for accreditation but added that NATO is in contact with Turkish authorities and that media access is crucial. The International Press Institute and 14 other organizations wrote to Secretary-General Mark Rutte urging him to review the decisions.

Democratic backtracking

Human Rights Watch deputy Europe director Benjamin Ward called the arrests an abuse of terrorism laws that "contradicts the alliance's basic values" and urged NATO to insist on peaceful expression and assembly around the summit. Turkey's main opposition CHP has seen its mayors and its leader targeted in a year-long crackdown; Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu remains jailed.

The abuse of terrorism laws for mass arrests and intimidation of people ahead of a NATO summit contradicts the alliance's basic values. The authorities should release those detained immediately, and NATO should insist that peaceful expression and assembly be allowed around the summit.

Strategic calculus

European leaders want to use the summit to strengthen the alliance and push Ukraine support, while Trump has complained of a lack of backing in the Iran war and is demanding higher defence spending. Analysts note that the EU’s restrained response to the crackdown reflects Turkey’s growing strategic importance as a defence partner and its role as NATO’s second-largest army.

For President Trump, this comes naturally; he doesn't care about human rights advancement globally. But now Europeans are also looking for some type of functional relationship with Turkey and wanting to disregard human rights as an impediment to bilateral relations.

Ilhan Uzgel, former deputy chair of the CHP, said Erdoğan should face diplomatic isolation: "Whenever Mr Erdogan meets a foreign leader, he's selling it to his own audience that he's a world leader. At least this opportunity could be taken from his hand."