 said, as demonstrations were held in several cities ahead of this week’s NATO summit in the capital, according to the Bianet news website.){kind=link}
Turkish police detained more than 100 people during anti-NATO protests in Ankara on Sunday, the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) said, as demonstrations were held in several cities ahead of this week’s NATO summit in the capital, according to the Bianet news website.
The TKP said police intervened in a march in central Ankara’s Kızılay Square and detained more than 100 party members, including party officials.
In a later statement on Monday, the party said 145 of its members had been detained in Ankara, Kocaeli and Soma, a district in the western province of Manisa.
“NATO’yla mücadele bir suç değil bir sorumluluktur” demiştik. AKP iktidarı ise, Filistin’de katliam sürerken, İran’a dönük ABD-İsrail saldırganlığının nereye evrileceği belli değilken, Ukrayna’daki savaşın kapsamının genişlemesi gündemdeyken NATO’yu protesto etmeyi suç olarak…
— TKP (@tkpninsesi) July 6, 2026
The July 7-8 summit will bring leaders of NATO’s 32 member states to Ankara. Turkish authorities have stepped up security measures in the capital, banning demonstrations, closing roads and erecting barricades around parts of the city.
Footage from Ankara showed protesters carrying flags and chanting slogans including “Murderer NATO, get out of the country” and “No passage to NATO” as riot police used tear gas to disperse the crowd.
The TKP said in a statement that protesting NATO was not a crime.
“Despite bans and pressure, we marched against NATO in the center of Ankara,” the party said. “Protesting NATO is not a crime, it is an honor.”
The party accused the government of trying to criminalize anti-NATO protests at a time of continued war in Ukraine, Israel’s war in Gaza and regional tensions involving Iran.
“NATO cannot be whitewashed by ministry or governor’s office decrees,” the party said, calling for the immediate release of those detained.
The protests were not limited to Ankara.
The TKP said it organized marches in İstanbul, İzmir, Adana, Samsun and Çanakkale, while other leftist groups also held anti-NATO demonstrations.
In İstanbul hundreds marched from Taksim Square toward Dolmabahçe, carrying a banner that read, “Withdraw from NATO, seize the bases,” according to Turkish media reports.
There were also two separate protests by leftist groups in Kadıköy, but no clashes were reported during the İstanbul demonstrations despite a heavy police presence.
In İzmir protesters marched in Buca toward a NATO command facility, while demonstrations were also held in Samsun, Çanakkale and Adana, where participants called for Turkey to leave NATO and close foreign military bases.
Turkey has been a NATO member since 1952 and hosts several facilities linked to the alliance and allied operations, including NATO’s Allied Land Command in İzmir, İncirlik Air Base near Adana and the Kürecik radar site in Malatya, which is part of NATO’s missile defense system.
For leftist and anti-NATO groups, those bases have long symbolized Turkey’s military dependence on the West, while Ankara says NATO membership remains central to the country’s security.
The crackdown on Sunday’s protests came after rights groups criticized Turkey over a blanket ban on demonstrations in Ankara ahead of the summit.
Human Rights Watch said last month that the detention of at least 209 people in Ankara ahead of the summit showed what it called Turkey’s “ruthless intolerance” of freedom of speech and assembly.
Amnesty International also called on Turkish authorities to lift the protest ban, describing it as “excessive and unjustifiable.”
NATO says the Ankara summit will include the NATO Summit Defence Industry Forum on July 7, a high-level event focused on defense production, investment and innovation.
The summit comes as Turkey seeks to showcase its defense industry and strengthen its role inside NATO, while rights groups and opposition parties accuse the government of using the summit to restrict dissent.