As US President Donald Trump flew into Ankara for the 2026 Nato summit, Turkey's membership of the military alliance continues to provoke anger domestically.
Opposition to Nato membership is nothing new among leftists in the country, but the ongoing genocide in Gaza and a sweeping crackdown and protest ban that have accompanied the summit have heightened anger over Ankara's hosting of the meeting.
A number of international figures, primarily socialists and anti-war activists, gathered in Istanbul on Saturday for a counter-summit opposing Nato. There have been regular demonstrations on the streets of the country, even as the Ankara Governorate imposed a ban on Sunday, set to last throughout the duration of the conference.
The Workers Party of Turkey (TIP), a left-wing group with three MPs in the Turkish parliament, organised the Istanbul Anti-Imperialist Peace Summit to present an alternative perspective to the commonly held view in Europe that Nato is the first line of defence for the continent.
"The 2026 Ankara Summit marks the threshold of a period in which the working people of Nato member states are left more vulnerable to exploitation and war, despite the forced increase in defence spending," reads the conference's pamphlet, "No to Nato", referring to a new commitment by all alliance members to increase defence spending to five percent of GDP annually by 2035.
