Turkish officials said on Sunday that over a hundred people were detained during an anti-NATO protest march organized by the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP). Riot police were called in to disperse the march with tear gas when it turned violent.
NATO will hold a summit in Ankara on Tuesday and Wednesday, with leaders from all 32 member countries in attendance, including President Donald Trump. Invited guests include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, European Council President Antonio Costa, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Security for the meeting will be very heavy. Turkish officials began preparing several days in advance by blocking off parts of Ankara, closing some key roads, and banning public demonstrations.
TKP went ahead with its protest march in Ankara’s Kizilay Square despite the ban. Demonstrators carried signs with slogans such as, “Murderer NATO, get out of the country,” and, “No passage to NATO.” The communists accused NATO of exacerbating the conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, and Iran.
The secretary-general of the Communist Party, Kemal Okuyan, insisted that it was important to defy the government and hold the demonstrations.
“We have gathered today in many parts of Turkey to protest against NATO. We said that we would not hand over Ankara to supporters of NATO, that we would not allow Ankara to remain silent. We have fulfilled that promise,” Okuyan said on Sunday.
TKP said on Monday that 145 of its members were detained in Ankara and at two other protests in different towns.
Opposition politicians and union leaders accused the Turkish government of abusing the NATO meeting as an excuse for cracking down on opponents, restricting speech, blocking websites, intimidating journalists, and arresting people on dubious terrorism charges.
Although NATO summits do not generally include public criticism of how member states conduct their internal affairs, human rights activists advised the other members of NATO to look carefully at Turkey’s slide into autocracy under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been in power for most of the past two decades.
“Turkey is so much more offside than any other NATO state with respect to democracy and human rights, and that should be a glaring difference for other countries. NATO member state leaders should look over the wall of the palace and see what is going on in the country,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) Turkey director Emma Sinclair-Webb told the pro-communist New York Times on Monday.
Two incidents before this weekend’s protests drew particular attention: the arrest of a comedian named Deniz Goktas on Thursday for allegedly insulting Erdogan and mocking Islam, and Turkey’s refusal to allow a cruise ship carrying some 2,000 LGBTQ+ passengers from docking at the ports of Kusadasi or Istanbul this week, ostensibly because the behavior of the passengers did not “align with the structure of our society and our moral values.”
The Washington Post on Sunday suggested the Ankara summit would be a delicate moment for NATO because President Trump frequently touts his friendship with Erdogan even as he grows more distant from the European members of the alliance — and if the U.S. disengages from NATO, Europe could become more reliant on Turkey’s strategic position in the Middle East and potent military industry.
Turkey’s Daily Sabah on Monday predicted the Ankara summit would deliver big wins for Erdogan, possibly even breaking the ice on Turkey’s long-stalled bid to join the European Union (EU).
“This week’s summit will be an opportunity for Turkey to showcase its flourishing defense industry and seek more collaboration in this field with NATO members. It will also be an opportunity for Turkey to enhance cooperation with EU states, most of whom are also NATO members, in bolstering the defenses of the continent,” the Daily Sabah said.
The article also credited Turkey with making NATO more serious about “combating terrorism” by withholding its approval for Sweden and Finland to join the alliance until they “implemented tangible measures in this area.”
In truth, Turkey was solely concerned with “terrorism” from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Kurdish separatist group that Turkey regards as the greatest challenge to its security, and the followers of the outcast cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Erdogan claims was the mastermind behind a 2016 coup attempt against him.
Turkey made an agreement with Finland and Sweden to withdraw its objections to their NATO membership in June 2022 and they officially joined in April 2023 and March 2024 respectively, motivated in large part by anxiety over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Fethullah Gulen died in October 2024 after years of Turkey trying, and failing, to extradite him from the United States. The PKK formally disbanded in May 2025, although Turkey remains extremely suspicious of all Kurdish armed groups.
Turkish Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said on Monday that security preparations for the NATO summit were complete, including enhanced security over airports, venues for the summit meetings, transportation, cybersecurity, and “potential public order risks.”
“This success is the result of the strong leadership of our esteemed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his determined commitment to peace and diplomacy, Turkey’s growing international standing, and our state’s strong institutional capacity,” Ciftci said.
“Our responsibility is to make the strongest possible contribution to this success through the security dimension,” he said. “We addressed every aspect with the same level of attention, from airports and summit venues to accommodation sites, transportation routes, cybersecurity, and potential public order risks.”