Turkish Police Detain 200+ in Ankara Sweep Weeks Before NATO Summit

Overnight between June 22–23, 2026, Turkish security forces executed 241 arrest warrants in Ankara, initially detaining at least 209 people — later revised to roughly 225 by June 26 — including political activists, lawyers, an academic, a prominent LGBT-rights journalist (Yıldız Tar) and 14 members of the TEMA nature-conservation foundation, on alleged ties to ISIS, DHKP-C, MLKP and TKP/ML. By June 26, 178 of those detained had been sent to pretrial detention, 34 placed under house arrest and 6 released. Human Rights Watch called the operation part of a broader pattern of 'ruthless intolerance of freedom of speech and assembly' ahead of the July 7–8 NATO summit in Ankara.