Turkey intensifies crackdown on public life in run-up to Nato summit in Ankara | Turkey

Authorities in Türkiye have expanded a crackdown on public life last month, arresting more than 200 people in raids across Ankara, jailing a comedian and preventing a cruise ship carrying LGBTQ+ passengers from docking ahead of a NATO summit in the capital.

The arrests took place following the demonstration ban imposed in Ankara until July 10. Human Rights Watch (HRW) in question this was evidence of Türkiye’s “brutal intolerance of freedom of expression and assembly.” The watchdog group said the NATO summit, which starts on Tuesday, takes place in the context of intensifying violations of fundamental rights, “including far-reaching restrictions on the main political opposition party, the media and freedom of expression generally.”

Stand-up comedian Deniz Göktaş, who came to Istanbul airport after the holiday last week, was arrested and detained. Göktaş was accused of “insulting the president” and “insulting religious values” for a program in which he described President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a dictator and made jokes about suicide bombers. The recording of the performance, which took place in Istanbul on June 1, was published on YouTube on June 24. The video has been watched nearly 9 million times.

According to Bianet, Göktaş tried to explain his jokes as follows in his statement to prosecutors: I tell them: “The word ‘dictator’ is a political term, a subject frequently discussed in public, and I have no intention of insulting or belittling anyone with this statement.”

In another recent incident, authorities in the coastal town of Aydin prevented a cruise ship operated by Atlantis, a company specializing in gay-friendly holidays, from docking on the grounds that the people on board were “known for behavior” that was “not in line with the structure of our society and our moral values.”

American actor and singer Patti LuPone, who was planned to perform on the ship, wrote in her social media post: “The Atlantis cruise, which I will take next week, has been banned from entering Türkiye just because of who is on the ship.”

This year Reporters Without Borders accused Türkiye of “using every means possible to undermine critics”. Ranked 163rd out of 180 Countries in the NGO’s press freedom index.

Right-wing groups and opposition parties have long accused Turkish authorities of silencing freedom of expression in the country, where investigations critical of Erdogan have increased rapidly in recent years.

Two journalists were arrested on Sunday: Buse Söğütlü, international news editor of the online newspaper T24; and OdaTV journalist Ceren Erdoğdu. Söğütlü’s lawyer Erman Öztürk told Agence France-Presse: “We believe this is linked to the NATO summit.” In its statement, the rights group X announced that Ezgi Onalan, President of the Istanbul Branch of the Contemporary Lawyers Association, was also detained.

The Ankara prosecutor’s office said the arrests, made during dawn raids in late June, “will expose the actions and activities of terrorist organizations” and accused those detained of having links to the Islamic State, as well as a number of socialist and Marxist groups.

HRW said authorities provided no evidence of any crimes committed by people accused of terrorism. Among those detained on suspicion of membership in a terrorist organization were journalist and LGBTQ+ activist Yıldız Tar, two lawyers, an academic and 14 members of an environmental organization focused on afforestation.

Western leaders have mostly avoided publicly voicing concerns about Türkiye’s record on rights and freedoms, focusing instead on boosting security ties with the regional military power and major arms exporter.

Some critics of Erdogan’s government believe that the West’s relative silence has encouraged authoritarian tendencies, isolating Türkiye’s opposition and ignoring core principles of NATO such as democracy and the rule of law. “It remains important that the West continues to comment on the breakdown of democratic institutions in Türkiye because the course is not irrevocably set, Turkey is not over the edge,” former US ambassador to Ankara David Satterfield told Reuters last week.

“It’s important for Turks to hear others talk about their system in this way,” said Satterfield, who is now director of the Baker Institute for Public Policy, a think tank at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

Over the past year, Türkiye’s main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), has come under sustained pressure. Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was arrested and tried like hundreds of other municipal opposition politicians. In late May, a court dismissed the CHP leader over concerns that critics aimed to stifle the party’s ability to challenge Erdogan.

İmamoğlu is on trial on a number of corruption charges. The CHP says he is the elected presidential candidate, even if it means he will run from prison.

he was 56 years old removed from the courtroom At the hearing held after the conflict with the judge last week, the judge said that he would give time until July 9 to hear the defense’s statements.