Two journalists were detained in Turkey on Sunday, their media outlets said, in the latest police operations ahead of a NATO summit in Ankara this week that will be attended by leaders including US President Donald Trump.
Buse Söğütlü, international news editor at the T24 online newspaper, and Ceren Erdoğdu, a journalist at OdaTV, were detained for reasons that were not immediately clear, according to their outlets.
Söğütlü’s lawyer, Erman Öztürk, told Agence France-Presse that the detention was believed to be linked to the NATO summit.
The July 7-8 summit will bring leaders of NATO’s 32 member states to Ankara under heavy security measures, road closures and a ban on public demonstrations.
Major roads in the capital were closed, and police were stationed in side streets on Sunday as authorities tightened security ahead of the summit, which is being hosted by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The latest detentions came amid growing criticism from rights groups and opposition figures over what they describe as a growing crackdown on dissent before the summit.
Erol Önderoğlu, Turkey representative for Reporters Without Borders (RSF), condemned what he called “indiscriminate, arbitrary and chaotic operations launched ahead of the NATO summit,” saying they “clearly threaten the reputation and safety of journalists.”
The Cumhuriyet daily reported that dozens of people were detained on Sunday, without giving a reason.
Ezgi Önalan, head of the İstanbul branch of the Association of Contemporary Lawyers (ÇHD), was also detained, the lawyers’ group said on X.
The detentions followed earlier police operations in Ankara that Human Rights Watch said led to the detention of at least 209 people ahead of the summit, including political activists, lawyers, an academic and a journalist who is a prominent LGBT rights activist.
Prosecutors said the operation was aimed at preventing the actions and activities of terrorist organizations, according to HRW.
Authorities have also banned demonstrations and public gatherings in Ankara until after the summit. The Communist Party of Turkey (HKP) said 19 of its members were detained in the city on Sunday.
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the court-reinstated leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), condemned the crackdown on X, saying the suppression of democratic protest damaged Turkey’s reputation.
“It is not the existence of protests that damages a country’s reputation, but rather the suppression of the right to demonstrate democratically,” he wrote, addressing Erdoğan directly.
The pressure on journalists has also extended to media access to the NATO summit. Several independent Turkish outlets, including T24, Cumhuriyet, ANKA and Sözcü TV, were denied accreditation to cover the summit, drawing criticism from press organizations. NATO has said that when summits are held outside its Brussels headquarters, accreditation decisions are made with the host country.
Human Rights Watch said in a separate statement last week that the pre-summit operations showed what it called Turkey’s “ruthless intolerance” of freedom of speech and assembly.
The summit comes as NATO members seek to show unity over defense spending, military production and support for Ukraine, while Trump’s stance toward the alliance remains a concern for some European members.
© Agence France-Presse