Your love for NATO cannot save you

Your love for NATO cannot save you

The government, which has practically besieged the country for NATO, pressed the operation button again ahead of the summit starting tomorrow. Dozens of citizens were detained in many provinces. Democratic mass organisations protesting the operations emphasised, "The de facto State of Emergency will be one of this government's new shames before history."

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The government, which has mobilised all its resources for the imperialist war organisation NATO, panicked ahead of the NATO Summit starting tomorrow in Ankara.

In house raids conducted yesterday morning in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Denizli, Antalya, Urfa, Kocaeli, Çanakkale, and Bursa, journalists, lawyers, academics, law students, association members, and political party representatives were detained by having their doors broken down.

In Denizli, three members of the SOL Party, two of whom are provincial executives, were among those detained, while members of the Revolutionary Youth Association (DGD) and employees and readers of the Revolutionary Movement Magazine, law students, Antalya People's House (Antalya Halkevi) President Gülcan Şahin, People's Houses (Halkevleri) members including the entire branch management, and Workers' Party of Türkiye (TİP) Antalya Provincial Organisation executives were also detained.

The Labour Party (EMEP) Kocaeli executive and Kocaeli Labour Youth (Kocaeli Emek Gençliği) members were detained by having their houses raided and doors broken. Private Sector Teachers' Union Central Executive Board member Yiğit Pertev, Antalya Provincial Spokesperson Diğde Simay Pertev, and Antalya Provincial Representative Mehmet Akif Karaca are also among those detained.

In Izmir, members of the Socialist Struggle Initiative announced they were detained via house raids on the grounds that they "carried out activities against NATO". In Eskişehir, it was reported that a total of six people from the DGD, Socialist Youth Associations Federation (SGDF), and Youth Committees (Gençlik Komiteleri) were detained.

Furthermore, in Urfa, EMEP and TİP members are among those detained via house raids. STATEMENT FROM ÇHD

The Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) announced that Istanbul Branch President Lawyer Ezgi Önalan and branch member Lawyer Yunusemre Işık were detained in a police operation conducted towards morning.

In a post shared on the association's social media account, a reaction was shown by stating, "End the political operations that promise a rose garden without thorns to NATO."

Academic and author Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sibel Özbudun announced on her social media account that she was detained along with academic and author Temel Demirer.

In her post, Özbudun said, "We are being detained. Transfer to Muğla."

T24 foreign news editor Buse Söğütlü and Odatv editor Ceren Erdoğdu were also among those detained. Söğütlü's Lawyer Erman Öztürk said that a 24-hour restriction on visitation was imposed and they did not yet know the reason for the detention.

Nihaplus reporter Abbas Vural is also among those detained. On the other hand, law students Boran Işıldak and Burhan Can were detained in Ankara's Tuzluçayır Neighbourhood. The threatening statement regarding the NATO Summit made by the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) included the expressions, "We strongly remind you that all broadcast streams are being monitored by our Monitoring and Evaluation Experts with a meticulousness fitting the importance of the summit." In the statement made by the Press Council, a reaction was given by saying, "This is the destruction of the public's right to receive news."

LET'S EXPAND THE STRUGGLE!

The summit was protested by the No to NATO Coordination in Istanbul. Hundreds of citizens gathering at Altıyol in Kadıköy marched to Rıhtım. The statement made here said: "To the AKP, which spends billions of liras to become the 'lead soldier' of imperialism and turns the country into a virtual open-air prison for revolutionaries, progressives, and labourers, to imperialism, and its collaborators, we have a clear answer: you are not wanted!

You are not wanted with your NATO, your USA, your Israel, Trump, domestic-foreign arms companies, and the AKP government that squanders all the public resources of the country! Opposing NATO and imperialism is not a crime! Hundreds of our socialist, revolutionary, progressive, and democratic comrades-in-struggle arrested in Istanbul and Ankara must be released immediately!

We call all labourers to struggle against the NATO Summit to convene on 7-8 July!"

THE BLOODY BALANCE SHEET OF THE IMPERIALIST WAR MACHINE

The NATO Summit, marketed with expressions of "defence, stability, and alliance solidarity" in the headlines of the pro-government media, is not enough to cover the other side of the coin.

The history of the war organisation NATO, established in 1949 as the protector of Western imperialism and global capital, relies not on a history of stability as claimed, but on a balance sheet woven with occupations, coups, and massacres. When NATO was founded in Washington on April 1949 with the signature of countries, the official justification was declared as "collective defence against the Soviet threat".

However, the alliance's real intention was to secure the hegemony of Western capitalism and suppress the left-wing, socialist rise within member countries. Towards this aim, secret paramilitary organisations were brought to life in all member countries.

These structures, operating as Gladio in Italy, SDRA8 in Belgium, and the Mobilisation Investigation Board and later named the Special Warfare Department in Türkiye, worked directly tied to NATO's unconventional warfare concept. Immediately after Türkiye was included in the alliance in 1952, this mechanism directly intervened in domestic politics.

The counter-guerrilla structuring behind the assassinations of the country's enlightenment figures became concrete outputs of the apparatus NATO used to crush the social opposition in member countries. The alliance, whose raison d'être disappeared with the end of the Cold War, instead of fading away, expanded its sphere of influence on a global scale and transformed into an open war and attack apparatus.

Military operations carried out under the guise of "bringing democracy" and "protecting all humanity" left hundreds of thousands dead in their wake. One of the major examples of this was the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. The alliance bombed Yugoslavia continuously for months, leading to the death of over 2,500 civilians according to unofficial data.

A similar destruction concept was put into action in Afghanistan following the September attacks. The 20-year occupation of Afghanistan resulted in the country being abandoned to the Taliban again. More than thousand people lost their lives in Afghanistan due to conflicts.

The military operation carried out in Libya in 2011 also resulted in a similar situation. It was a country with high living standards compared to Africa; after the NATO intervention, it was transformed into a failed and unstable state; the country's underground resources were shared among Western energy monopolies.

The Korean War, to which Türkiye also sent troops as a condition of being admitted to NATO, is remembered as a tragedy that cost the lives of nearly million people right at the beginning. STEP-BY-STEP SIEGE

NATO functions not to establish security, but to legitimise its own existence by magnifying militarism.

THE NEW PHASE: NATO 3.0

The main goal of the summit to take place in Ankara will be the transition to a new phase of global aggression called "NATO 3.0" in the transformation of the alliance. Following the containment-focused NATO 1.0 during the Cold War era and NATO 2.0 periods encompassing regional interventions in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, this new concept voiced today aims to completely detach the alliance from its geographical borders and transform it into a global apparatus.

At the centre of NATO 3.0 lies extending beyond its current sphere of influence to the Asia-Pacific region and establishing a global siege line by defining China as a structural threat. This new strategic concept includes not only a geographical expansion but also a change in the nature of war.

The cyber domain, artificial intelligence-integrated autonomous weapon systems, space technologies, and disinformation processes are now accepted as NATO's direct fields of operation. Therefore, the alliance plans to guarantee imperialist monopolisation in the future not only with military troops but also by keeping digital infrastructures, energy lines, and social information networks under control.

The Western bloc, wanting to keep the Global South as raw materials and a market, is calculating to build a military and technological dictatorship against the multipolar world with NATO 3.0. One of the clearest impositions behind the scenes of the Ankara Summit will be the entrenchment of the obligation for member countries to increase their military spending to at least 2% of their gross domestic product to cover the technological and military expansion costs brought by NATO 3.0.

The practical equivalent of this rule means that health, education, social security, and public investment budgets in member countries will be cut and transferred directly to multinational arms monopolies. Today, the total military spending of NATO members has exceeded 1.3 trillion dollars.

Although the talks to be held in Ankara will be served to the agencies with "global peace" messages, concrete data, historical facts, and imperialist plans for the future continue to prove that NATO is not a protective shield for the peoples of the world; but an apparatus of instability, coups, occupation, and profit-oriented militarism.

INTERVENTIONS NATO HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN

Bosnian War (1995): Operation Deliberate Force, launched upon the bombing of Sarajevo by Serbian forces and the request of the United Nations. Kosovo War (1999): Operation Allied Force, carried out to stop ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia.

War in Afghanistan (2001-2021): The operation launched after the September attacks and where NATO invoked Article (collective defence) for the first and only time. Libyan Civil War (2011): Operation Unified Protector, launched with a United Nations resolution to protect civilians.Furthermore, it operated in regions such as North Macedonia, Somalia, and Iraq under the claim of "security, inspection, or training missions".

US DRESS FOR THE FSM BRIDGE

The government's preparations ahead of the NATO Summit to be held on 7-8 July are continuing at full throttle. Following the "make-up" works in Ankara, the FSM bridge in Istanbul took on the colours of white, blue, and red.

On the 250th anniversary of the founding of the USA, the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge in Istanbul was decorated with the colours of the US flag. HIDE THE CHILDREN, TRUMP IS COMING

Members of the Communist Party of Türkiye (TKP) also wanted to march to Kızılay Square against the summit yesterday evening.

During this time, more than people were detained by police intervention. The People's Liberation Party (HKP) held a protest in front of the old Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (TBMM) building. people were detained following police intervention. On the other hand, a group protesting US President Donald Trump's arrival in Türkiye for the NATO summit hung a banner reading "Hide your children, Trump is coming" on the Golden Horn Bridge, making a reference to the Epstein Scandal.

REACTIONS ARE GROWING LIKE AN AVALANCHE

SOL Party: "On one hand, bans, repressions, operations; on the other hand, the rush to cover up the truth with whitewashing... The de facto State of Emergency declared for the NATO summit will be one of this government's new shames before history.

Those detained must be released immediately!"

Confederation of Public Employees' Trade Unions (KESK): "This morning, many journalists, lawyers, academics, political party representatives, trade unionists, and students, including our members, were detained via house raids.

Those detained must be released immediately!"

Workers' Party of Türkiye (TİP): "These raids, which are understood to target left-socialist institutions and their members and executives, once again reveal with what frenzy and how dishonourably the government acts to protect a handful of murderers."

Communist Party of Türkiye (TKP): "We will resolutely continue our anti-NATO struggle."

Labour Party (EMEP) Chairman Seyit Aslan: "The sole purpose of these detention operations is to cover up the crimes committed by NATO and to suppress the rising social objection."

Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Parti) Co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan: "Due to the NATO summit, repression is besieging all areas of life, from the street to the academy, from the stage to the news."

Republican People's Party (CHP) Deputy Group Chairman Ali Mahir Başarır: "There is no crime, no allegation, no concrete act, but they are detaining lawyers, academics, and journalists all over the country...

They are afraid of those who speak, write, and ask questions!"

Journalists' Association of Türkiye (TGC): "It is unacceptable for journalists to be put under pressure and tried to be silenced with the threat of detention because of their news and commentary activities carried out for the public benefit.

We call on the authorities to act in accordance with the principles set out by the Constitution and the Türkiye Journalists' Declaration of Rights and Responsibilities; and to stop hindering the freedom of the press and expression."

Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Türkiye Press, Publishing, and Printing Workers' Union (DİSK BASIN-İŞ): "We do not accept this.

Those detained must be released immediately!"

Journalists' Union of Türkiye (TGS): "Why are journalists Buse Söğütlü and Ceren Erdoğdu in detention? Unlawful practices must be ended, and Söğütlü and Erdoğdu must be released immediately."

Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG): "Journalism is not a crime."

Note: This article is translated from the original article titled NATO sevdanız sizi kurtaramaz, published in BirGün newspaper on July 6, 2026.

#nato zirvesi