In Ankara, more than 100 people were detained during a protest against NATO organized by the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) ahead of the alliance summit, which will take place in the Turkish capital on Tuesday and Wednesday, Reuters reports.

Turkish authorities had tightened security measures in advance: mass demonstrations were banned in the city, many streets were closed, and additional police cordons were set up.

According to TKP, the march took place in Kızılay Square in central Ankara. More than a hundred party members, including its leaders, were among those detained. Footage released shows demonstrators waving flags and chanting slogans such as: “NATO is a killer, get out of our country!” and “NATO has no place here!” Police used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.

At the same time, several more anti-NATO protests took place in Istanbul. Hundreds of people marched from Taksim Square to Dolmabahçe Palace, while two separate demonstrations by left-wing organizations were held in the Kadıköy district. Despite the increased police presence, no clashes occurred there.

Kemal Okuyan, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Turkey, said that protests had taken place simultaneously in several cities across the country.

“Today we took to the streets in many cities across Turkey to protest against NATO. We promised that we would not hand Ankara over to NATO supporters and would not allow the capital to remain silent. We kept our promise,” he said.

The Turkish government has not yet commented on either the protests or the mass detentions.

Meanwhile, opposition representatives sharply criticized the authorities’ actions. Tuncer Bakırhan, co-chair of the pro-Kurdish DEM party, said that the upcoming NATO summit was being used as a pretext for sweeping restrictions on civil liberties.

“The country has effectively been turned into one vast detention center under the pretext of hosting the NATO summit. We are living through days of undeclared martial law,” he wrote on the social network X.

Turkish authorities had previously said that the latest mass detentions in the country were linked to anti-terrorism operations and had nothing to do with preparations for the NATO summit.

Earlier, opposition Turkish media reported the detention of journalists, teachers, and representatives of a number of organizations.