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

According to The Guardian, Turkey has sharply widened a crackdown on public life in the lead-up to the NATO summit opening Tuesday in Ankara. Authorities arrested more than two hundred people in raids across the capital last month, jailed a comedian and journalists, and blocked a cruise ship carrying LGBTQ+ passengers from docking. The moves followed a ban on demonstrations in Ankara that runs until the tenth of July. Human Rights Watch called it evidence of what it described as Turkey's ruthless intolerance of free speech and assembly, adding that the summit is unfolding amid intensifying rights violations, including far-reaching restrictions on the main opposition party, the media, and freedom of expression more broadly.

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