ISTANBUL, June 23, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Two weeks before hosting a NATO summit

that will be attended by leaders including US President Donald Trump, Turkey

arrested more than 200 people with alleged ties to jihadist and far-left

groups.

Rights groups and local media said the detainees included a journalist, three

lawyers, an academic and a union official.

The top-level summit takes place in the capital Ankara on July 7-8.

Early on Tuesday, the Ankara prosecutor's office said it had issued warrants

for 241 people, with anti-terror police arresting 209 people in early morning

raids in the city.

Of those arrested so far, 185 are suspected of belonging to several far-left

organisations, including the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front

(DHKP-C), which has staged attacks in the past and has been branded a terror

group by Ankara.

The detainees also included Yildiz Tar, editor-in-chief of LGBTQ journal Kaos

GL, the MLSA rights group said on X, while the Progressive Lawyers

Association (CHD) said two of its lawyers were detained in Ankara and a third

in Istanbul.

Newspaper Gazete Oksijen said an academic from Ankara University's economics

department and a union official were also arrested.

Erol Onderoglu of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) denounced Tar's arrest as

"unacceptable" and demanded his release, saying the summit was no

justification for his "arbitrary" detention on security grounds.

Authorities said the operations targeted multiple groups as part of broader

security measures.

In a post late on Monday, the Ankara governor's office announced a ban on all

demonstrations from June 28 until the end of the summit in order "to ensure

summit security and maintain public order".

The summit is expected to bring together leaders from the military alliance's

32 member states.

BSS/AFP/SSS/1921 hrs