NATO Meets in Turkey Amid Crackdown on Civil Society; Trump Praises Erdoğan & Considers F-35 Sales

Trump announced on Tuesday at the NATO summit in Ankara that he would lift U.S. sanctions on Turkey and is considering selling the country F-35 fighter jets. Trump made the comment following a lavish state dinner hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whom he praised as a “great leader.” The mayor of Istanbul and other Turkish politicians, civil society figures and journalists remain jailed on politically motivated charges.

“Here in Ankara, and in Turkey more broadly, this NATO summit is not taking place in a climate of freedom. We saw, in the two weeks leading up to this summit happening, authorities in Ankara arrested over 200 people in dawn raids,” says Ruth Michaelson, a journalist based in Istanbul. “There has also been a protest ban enforced in Ankara, and that is a protest ban that extends even to leafleting.”

Repression from the Turkish state has not been addressed during the summit; instead, “something that we’ve been hearing throughout the summit is that Turkey has this indispensable place in NATO,” says Michaelson.