Turkey detains 209 in raids in the capital ahead of July’s NATO summit

Subscribed with another email? Logout and Login with that one. Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription The View From India Looking at World Affairs from the Indian perspective. First Day First Show News and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming. Today's Cache Your download of the top 5 technology stories of the day. Science For All The weekly newsletter from science writers takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in! Data Point Decoding the headlines with facts, figures, and numbers THEdge At the cutting edge of education and careers Health Matters Ramya Kannan writes to you on getting to good health, and staying there Gender Agenda Stories from beyond the binary. The Hindu On Books Books of the week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features. Published - June 24, 2026 04:49 am IST - ANKARA, Turkey Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has prioritized security and authorities regularly carry out security raids. File. | Photo Credit: Reuters Security forces in the Turkish capital carried out sweeping raids on Tuesday (June 23, 2026) ahead of next month’s NATO summit, and detained more than 200 people with suspected links to extremist groups, including the Islamic State group, officials said. Some media outlets, however, reported that some of those detained were politicians or activists, leading to allegations of arbitrary detentions. U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to join other leaders of the 32‑member alliance in Ankara for the July 7–8 summit. Turkey is planning strict security measures for the summit, including banning demonstrations and restricting access to roads leading to airports, as well as sealing off areas around the summit venue and hotels hosting delegations. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has prioritized security and authorities regularly carry out security raids. Last month, security forces detained 324 people suspected of links to the Islamic State group in a nationwide sweep. Early on Tuesday, Turkish prosecutors issued detention orders for 241 suspects, and 209 of them were subsequently taken into custody in police and gendarmerie raids around Ankara, according to a statement from the chief prosecutor’s office. The raids were still underway later Tuesday to take in the rest of the suspects. Among those detained were 56 alleged Islamic State militants and 35 members of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front, a far‑left group known for armed attacks and assassinations in Turkey, the statement said. Birgun, an independent left-leaning newspaper, and other media reported that a politician, an LGBTQ activist and at least three lawyers allegedly close to left-wing groups were also among the detained. That lead to concerns that the government could be using security as a pretext to silence critics and prevent possible anti-NATO demonstrations during the summit. “This arbitrary wave of detentions and arrests targeting leftist and socialist institutions once again reveals the state the country has reached,” the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, DEM, said. “Turning Ankara into a giant prison with bans imposed for the NATO Summit is unacceptable.” The Islamic State group has also carried out numerous deadly attacks in Turkey, including the 2017 New Year’s shooting at an Istanbul nightclub that killed 39 people. Copyright© 2026, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. Terms & conditions | Institutional Subscriber Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

Turkey detains 209 in raids in the capital ahead of July’s NATO summit

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Turkey detains 209 in raids in the capital ahead of July’s NATO summit

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