Turkish authorities have detained the editor-in-chief of an LGBTQ publication, Yildiz Tar, along with 42 volunteers from an environmental non-governmental organization, on suspicion of links to terrorist organizations. The detentions occurred Tuesday following a series of house raids in Ankara, as prosecutors announced warrants had been issued for 241 people accused of affiliations with several banned militant groups.
The operation precedes a NATO summit scheduled to take place in Turkey's capital, which will be attended by 32 heads of state, including U.S. President Donald Trump. Legal rights group the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) reported that 225 people were arrested in total, encompassing journalists, academics, lawyers, trade unionists, teachers, and civil society representatives. Of those arrested, 103 were placed in pre-trial detention for alleged "membership in a terrorist organisation."
Prosecutors stated that the suspects "may carry out terrorist acts in an effort to make Turkey appear as a country known for terrorism." According to MLSA, the individuals were questioned about their potential membership in the banned Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist (TKP/ML), the use of code names, and whether they had received armed training.
In the case of Yildiz Tar, prosecutors reportedly focused on his public stance regarding President Recep Erdogan's "Year of the Family" initiative rather than NATO matters. Tar, who has frequently written in defense of the LGBTQ+ community's fundamental rights and freedoms, stated he was exercising his "right to freedom of expression through criticism."
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) described Tar's arrest as "unacceptable" and called for his immediate release, asserting that the upcoming summit should not be used as a pretext for arbitrary detention. Human Rights Watch similarly denounced the arrests, characterizing the use of terrorism laws to silence individuals ahead of the NATO summit as a contradiction of the alliance's founding values.
Security sources indicated that one suspect was killed during a confrontation with police during the raids, and the suspect's wife, also a target of the warrants, sustained injuries. The warrants issued by prosecutors identified 185 individuals as allegedly belonging to far-left organizations and 56 as suspected of ties to the Islamic State (IS) group.