In Türkiye, the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has escalated its repression of the left and anti-war opposition ahead of the 36th NATO Summit, to be held in Ankara on July 7–8, detaining 209 people on Tuesday morning.

In the early hours, simultaneous house raids were carried out in numerous cities, above all in Ankara. Police broke down doors and searched homes. According to figures released by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, 209 of the 241 people for whom detention orders had been issued were taken into custody. The prosecutor’s office claimed that the operation was carried out “as part of efforts to expose the actions and activities of terrorist organizations across the country.” Those detained were placed under a 24-hour restriction on access to a lawyer.

Among those detained for taking part in anti-NATO protests and organizing are representatives of various legal political parties and mass organizations. They include Revolutionary Party General Chair Elif Torun Öneren; journalist Yıldız Tar; Peoples’ Houses Association General Executive Board member Hediye Yıldırım; Pir Sultan Abdal Association Ankara Branch youth representative Ferhat Kaplan; Umut-Sen (Hope Union) spokesperson Burcu Arıkan; Ankara University Faculty of Political Science lecturer Assoc. Prof. Emel Memiş; and lawyers who are members of the Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD). Members of the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations (SGDF), the Free University Movement and the People’s Law Office were also detained.

The Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi – Dördüncü Enternasyonal (Socialist Equality Party-Fourth International), the Turkish section of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), demands the immediate release of the political opponents of NATO and war. The de facto state of emergency and the bans in Ankara must be lifted, and all democratic rights unconditionally guaranteed. The social force that must be mobilized against NATO and imperialist war, and in defence of democratic rights, through the building of independent rank-and-file committees, is the international working class.

The operations followed the state-of-emergency-type ban announced the previous evening, on June 22, by the Ankara Governor’s Office. Citing the pretext of safeguarding “national security” and “the reputation of our country,” and protecting “the safety of the delegations attending the summit at the highest level,” the governor’s office banned all assemblies, demonstrations and marches, press statements, sit-ins, rallies, hunger strikes, the setting up of stands and tents, the distribution of leaflets and the hanging of posters and banners across the city from 00:00 on June 28 until 23:59 on July 10—for 13 days.

Entry will also be barred to “designated sensitive areas, above all the venues where the summit will be held, the places where the delegations will be staying and the routes along which they will travel.”

This wave of repression is aimed at guaranteeing that the leaders of the imperialist powers, above all US President Donald Trump, are not confronted with any protest whatsoever. To this end, the freedoms of assembly, demonstration, expression and association—supposedly guaranteed by the constitution—are being suspended. The unlawful detention of hundreds of people as a preventive measure ahead of the summit, and the barring political activity from the capital for 13 days in the name of “public order,” mark a significant milestone in the construction of a police state in Türkiye.

The latest detentions are the peak of a wave of police operations now underway for weeks, and it must be expected to continue and to widen.

The wave of operations began on the morning of June 12. As part of investigations centered in Eskişehir and Zonguldak, simultaneous house raids were carried out in eight provinces, and 14 students who are members of the Revolutionary Youth Associations (DGD) were detained. The same day, in a separate investigation centered in Diyarbakır, five members of the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) and the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations (SGDF) were detained.

These were followed by a wave of arrests in Istanbul. On June 15, house raids and detentions were carried out against the Independent Revolutionary Class Platform (BDSP), the Revolutionary Textile Workers’ Union (Dev Tekstil), the Revolutionary Youth Union (DGB), the Revolutionary Students’ Union (DÖB), the Workers’ Unity Association, the League of Struggle journal and the Federation of Socialist Councils (SMF). Of the 23 people brought before the courthouse on June 18, 21 were arrested.

Meanwhile, since June 14, private-sector teachers—who have launched a struggle and gone on hunger strike in Ankara demanding a decent salary, humane working conditions and appointment of teachers victimized by the interview (oral examination) system—have faced mounting police violence and detentions.  The governor’s banning of “hunger strikes” in Ankara is aimed directly at the teachers.

The Erdoğan government is responding to the intensifying imperialist war on Türkiye’s borders and to the deepening class struggle at home by consolidating its construction of a presidential dictatorship. Erdoğan is doing this with the approval of his imperialist NATO allies, above all the United States, and on behalf of the Turkish ruling class.

Erdoğan leads NATO’s second-largest army. Amid the US war against Iran and the NATO war against Russia, Ankara is strengthening its ties with its imperialist allies. The reinforcement of NATO’s presence in Türkiye with additional air defence systems and a new army corps, and the establishment of a naval headquarters in Istanbul together with Britain and France as part of the “Coalition of the Willing” against Russia, are signs of this. As the host of the summit, Ankara is signalling to Washington and the European capitals that any mass opposition to war, genocide and militarism will be suppressed.

The NATO leaders for whom Ankara will roll out the red carpet support war against Iran and Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians; they are slashing social spending as they plunge into an arms race; and they are attacking democratic rights.

There is deep opposition among workers and young people in Türkiye to US imperialism, NATO and war. For the masses, the US and NATO mean nothing but wars and military coups. According to a survey conducted by Areda Survey in March, more than 90 percent of the population is opposed to the US-Israeli war against Iran and to the US bases in the country.

Despite its rhetorical criticisms of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the Erdoğan government continues to mediate the shipment of critical Azerbaijani oil to Israel. Ankara played a key role in the agreement that imposed capitulation on Hamas, and it joined Trump’s “Board of Peace,” which legitimizes Israel’s occupation of Gaza. Political opposition to these policies has been met with violent police repression from the very outset of the genocide.

At the same time, the NATO bases in Türkiye have continued to provide logistical support for the wars the US is waging for control over the Middle East. While Ankara refused to condemn the US in the war against Iran, it condemned Iran’s legitimate retaliatory strikes in self-defence.

The mounting state repression ahead of the NATO summit lays bare the connection between the struggle against imperialism and war and the struggle to defend democratic rights. The fight against war and dictatorship—both products of the crisis of the global capitalist system—can be carried forward only as an international and socialist struggle based on the working class. This in turn requires a break with all the parties of the capitalist order, which are inherently incapable of defending democratic rights, and the building of the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi as the revolutionary leadership of the working class.

On the basis of this perspective, the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi calls on workers and young people to take action against NATO and imperialism around the following demands:

• The US and Israeli war against Iran, the invasion of Lebanon, and the genocide in Gaza must be halted immediately and unconditionally.
• All US armed forces in the Middle East must be withdrawn, and the military bases—including those in Türkiye—that form the infrastructure of imperialist domination must be closed.
• The NATO summit scheduled for July in Ankara must be cancelled. Türkiye must withdraw from NATO; NATO must be dissolved; and all resources devoted to militarism and war must be redirected to meet the needs of society.
• All sanctions and economic warfare against Iran, Cuba, Russia and other countries must be ended.
• All war criminals must be held accountable.
• All political prisoners who have been detained or arrested must be immediately released; all bans trampling democratic rights must be lifted; the fundamental democratic rights of the Kurdish people must be recognised.