<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/06/turkey-crackdown-public-life-run-up-nato-summit-ankara>
"Authorities in Turkey have widened a crackdown on public life, arresting more
than 200 people during raids across Ankara last month, jailing a comedian and
blocking a cruise ship carrying LGBTQ+ passengers from docking in the run-up to
the Nato summit in the capital.
The arrests followed a ban on demonstrations in Ankara that was put in place
until 10 July. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said this was evidence of Turkey’s
“ruthless intolerance of freedom of speech and assembly”. The watchdog group
said the Nato summit, which starts on Tuesday, was taking place in the context
of intensifying violations of basic rights, “including far-reaching
restrictions on the main political opposition party, the media, and freedom of
expression in general”.
Last week, the standup comedian Deniz Göktaş was arrested and put in pre-trial
detention after arriving at Istanbul airport from a holiday. Göktaş was charged
with “insulting the president” and “denigrating religious values” in relation
to a show in which he referred to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,
as a dictator and made jokes about suicide bombers. The performance took place
in Istanbul on 1 June and a recording was released on YouTube on 24 June. The
video has been viewed nearly 9m times."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
