TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Turkish police have arrested several journalists, rights activists, academics and members of leftist groups, according to media and unions in Turkey on Sunday.
The raids across several provinces come as the Turkish government, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, steps up security operations in the run-up to a NATO summit taking place in Ankara on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Turkish authorities have imposed a strict ban on public gatherings in Ankara ahead of the summit.
Despite that ban, left-wing protesters demonstrated against NATO in Ankara on Sunday.
What do we know about the police raids in Turkey?
Opposition broadcaster Halk TV and the Cumhuriyet newspaper reported that police operations in Ankara, Istanbul and other provinces had targeted dozens of left-wing and socialist political parties, labor unions and civil society groups.
The chairwoman of the Istanbul chapter of the Association of Contemporary Lawyers (CHD) was arrested and her apartment was searched, the organization said, adding that several of her clients were also arrested.
The editor-in-chief of the T24 online newspaper, Buse Sotuglu, and Ceren Erdogdu, a reporter for Oda TV, were both arrested at their homes, their respective employers said.
No reasons for their detentions were given, but lawyer Erman Ozturk said he presumed the arrests were related to the upcoming NATO summit.
Ozturk told the AFP news agency that the police raids were seemingly trying to "intimidate democrats, leftists, and the press."
State news agency Anadolu said police had arrested 39 suspects in raids across the country which targeted the youth wing of the banned leftist organization THKP/C-DEV YOL.
Police also detained 28 suspects in the western Kocaeli province who have alleged ties to the "Islamic State" and left-wing militant groups, according to Anadolu, with police seizing ammunition and banned digital materials.
Groups denounce police crackdown
While authorities say the raids are part of counterterrorism investigations, government critics say the police crackdown is designed to prevent protests and silence dissent ahead of the summit in Ankara this week. More than 30 leaders of NATO member states, including US President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, are set to attend.
Turkey's representative for Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Erol Onderoglu, condemned the "blind, arbitrary, and haphazard operations" which endangered "the reputation and safety of journalists."
The Turkish Journalists' Association (TGC) also denounced the arrests, saying it was "unacceptable for journalists to be placed under pressure and attempted to be silenced through the threat of detention."
The TGC demanded the release of all those detained, warning that the raids were a violation of press freedoms and just the latest attempt to silence opposition dissent ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara.
Over 200 people, including lawyers, academics, civil society representatives and students, were arrested in late June, human rights activists say, as part of the crackdown by Turkish authorities in the run-up to the NATO meeting.
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