Eyes on Ankara

For decades, NATO has dressed itself in the language of freedom and democracy — even as it has embraced the regime with established records of war crimes, authoritarian repression, and complicity in genocide.

This week they are gathered in Ankara — and in doing so, it has chosen its symbol well.

There are few governments that better embody the enduring values of this military bloc than the one now hosting it. Türkiye under Erdoğan has waged war on the Kurdish people, denied the Armenian genocide, jailed elected opposition politicians, replaced democratic mayors with state appointees, and driven thousands into displacement. These actions have never been a source of embarrassment for NATO.

On Palestine, Erdoğan denounces Israel’s genocide while Turkish infrastructure helps sustain it. Despite a declared trade embargo, crude oil continues to flow from Türkiye’s Ceyhan port to Israel’s Ashkelon. An investigation by Energy Embargo for Palestine, the Progressive International and the Palestinian Youth Movement tracked dozens of covert shipments along the Ceyhan–Ashkelon route — now Israel’s single largest source of oil. Refined into jet fuel, that oil has powered the aircraft bombing Gaza.

Ahead of the summit, our member organisation the Kurdistan National Congress warned that NATO would once again bury the Kurdish question. In an open letter published ahead of the summit, tt describes how Erdoğan's government rejected the historic possibility for peace opened by Abdullah Öcalan’s call in February 2025 for the PKK to lay down arms and dissolve, followed by a unilateral ceasefire. NATO leaders will hear nothing of this at the summit.

The world has grown accustomed to Erdoğan’s double game: champion of the Global South in his speeches, partner of empire in his actions. The Ankara summit is another display of this pattern.

We refuse this charade. An alliance that gathers in Ankara while Kurdish political prisoners fill Turkish jails, while oil from a Turkish port fuels genocide, while the memory of Armenian extermination remains officially denied, is little more than a protection racket for power.

The Progressive International Cabinet stands in solidarity with progressive forces in Türkiye confronting Erdoğan's government.