A Turkish court has released nine people, comprising a journalist, an academic, environmental volunteers and a labor representative, who were jailed ahead of NATO’s July summit in Ankara, the Anka news agency reported.
Those released were Kaos GL editor-in-chief Yıldız Tar, seven volunteers with the TEMA Foundation, among them Ankara University academic Associate Professor Emel Memiş Parmaksız, and Burcu Arıkan, a spokesperson for the Umut-Sen labor union.
The legal proceedings against them will continue while they remain free.
Following the releases the TEMA Foundation said on X that all of its jailed volunteers had regained their freedom.
Reports said further releases were expected.
Tar was detained on June 23 and jailed two days later on accusations of membership in an armed terrorist organization. They had been held in Ankara’s Sincan Prison.
The nine were among 178 people jailed pending trial in a large-scale operation conducted less than two weeks before the NATO summit in Ankara on July 7 and 8.
Police and gendarmes detained 225 people after the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued warrants for 241 suspects as part of what it described as a terrorism investigation. A court subsequently jailed 178 suspects and released 34 under judicial supervision.
The detention of hundreds of people and the jailing of dozens, including elderly suspects, drew criticism from rights advocates, who viewed the operation as a preventive measure aimed at heading off possible protests.
Critics said the crackdown lacked evidence of criminal activity and constituted an interference with freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
The suspects were accused of links to the outlawed Turkish Communist Party/Marxist-Leninist (TKP/ML). Many denied having any connection to the organization, with several saying they had never heard of it before the investigation.
Tar said during questioning that she had learned the organization’s name only after her detention.
“I am a journalist, and as part of my profession I am responsible for following and reporting on social events,” Tar said at the time. “I never expected to face such an accusation.”
The Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) said Tar was questioned not about the NATO summit but about a social media post promoting an event critical of the Turkish government’s “Year of the Family” campaign.
Parmaksız also described the allegation against her as “completely baseless,” citing her academic work and the training she had provided to hundreds of public officials.
Lawyer Süleyman Çetin, representing the TEMA Foundation, welcomed the volunteers’ release but said the time they spent behind bars had caused irreparable suffering.
“The reversal of this serious mistake has pleased all TEMA volunteers,” Çetin told the BirGün daily. “TEMA volunteers are people who love their land. No one can erase the suffering they endured while deprived of their freedom.”
Çetin described the decision as a restoration of the volunteers’ reputations and called for the lifting of house arrest orders imposed on other TEMA volunteers in the investigation.
“We see these releases as a restoration of reputation,” he said.
TEMA, one of Turkey’s best-known environmental organizations, works on reforestation, soil conservation and environmental education.
The investigation also targeted elderly and retired TEMA volunteers who said they had participated only in environmental activities.
A 79-year-old retired engineer, a 73-year-old former Finance Ministry employee and a 72-year-old cancer patient were among those put under house arrest.
Opposition politicians and rights advocates said the operation targeted journalists, academics, lawyers, trade union members and environmental volunteers under the pretext of security for the NATO summit.
Human Rights Watch said the arrests, protest bans and other restrictions imposed ahead of the gathering demonstrated Turkey’s “ruthless intolerance of freedom of speech and assembly.”