NATO Heads of State and Government at the 2026 NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey. Photo: NATO

In July, NATO leaders gathered for their first summit in Turkey for 22 years. With his country commanding the alliance’s second-largest military, the summit, hosted in Ankara, represented an ideal opportunity for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to reassert Turkey’s influence within NATO. The summit took place against a backdrop of heightened tensions over defence spending, the Iran war and fears of ongoing Russian aggression.

The summit also took place amid renewed concerns about Turkey’s escalating anti-democratic crackdown, which has targeted opponents of the government. In May, Turkish authorities raided the headquarters of the country’s main opposition party after a court ruled that its senior leaders should be removed from their positions. The Court found that the party’s 2023 congress, during which delegates elected the officials, should be annulled. The leaders have declared their intention to appeal the ruling.

Meanwhile, Istanbul’s mayor and one of Erdoğan’s main rivals, Ekrem Imamoğlu, was arrested on corruption charges in spring 2025. Turkey’s opposition condemned his arrest as a ‘coup attempt against [the] next president.’

Alon Ben-Meir, a retired senior fellow at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs and an expert in Middle Eastern politics, says this increased crackdown on public life has been driven by Erdoğan’s strongly held desire to consolidate power, resurrect the Ottoman Empire and restore Turkey as a leader of the Sunni world.

The Turkish authorities maintain that over the past few decades, ‘comprehensive reforms have been implemented […] to strengthen democracy and the rule of law, as well as to ensure full respect for fundamental rights and freedoms,’ and that security measures are necessary to combat terrorism.

Erdoğan was pictured welcoming US President Donald Trump to Ankara airport accompanied by military fanfare, signifying his keenness to use the occasion to reset Turkey’s relationship with the US administration. Turkey incurred America’s wrath in 2019 when it agreed to buy Russia’s S-400 missile defence system, prompting widespread security concerns among NATO allies. The US removed Turkey from the F-35 jet programme and imposed sanctions on Ankara the next year.

However, President Trump has since repeatedly praised Erdoğan as a ‘strong leader’, while becoming increasingly critical of the defence spending of other NATO members, as well as their refusal to join the US in its war with Iran.

At the summit, as NATO members pledged to expand defence budgets and provide €70bn towards military equipment, assistance and training for Ukraine, President Trump declared that the US would remove sanctions on Ankara and consider selling F-35 fighter jets to Turkey. This announcement will have been welcomed in Ankara, which appears to be distancing itself from Russia by reducing its economic and energy reliance on Moscow.

Slawomir Uss, an officer of the IBA European Regional Forum, said the summit presented an opportunity for Turkey to consolidate both its own and NATO’s role in the global security order. ‘I am from Poland and NATO is of utmost importance to us, to our existence – the stronger NATO is, the safer we are,’ he says. ‘We should do everything to keep Turkey as an active NATO member, which also means Turkey taking a firm position towards Russia […] which would be in line with the position of the remaining NATO countries.’

In the run-up to the summit, several independent Turkish journalists were reportedly denied media accreditation to cover the event⁠. When questioned about this, Mark Rutte, NATO’s Secretary General, didn’t comment directly on democratic backsliding in Turkey, but said it was important that the media could attend major events in person.

Human rights groups have voiced concern that the summit has been a missed opportunity for allies to call out Turkey on human rights violations. Ben-Meir, who has mediated several critical negotiations between Turkey, Israel and Syria, says it’s likely that some allies will have deployed diplomacy behind-the-scenes to encourage Ankara to temper its actions. ‘The only way Erdoğan can be influenced is on the sidelines,’ he says. ‘Heads of state need to sit down with him and say this cannot be tolerated.’

The timing of any potential intervention by allies is crucial, he adds, as Turkey looks ahead to its next presidential election – scheduled for 2028 – amid intense speculation over Erdoğan’s potential successor. ‘This particular time is important as he’s been in power for 23 years – he cannot rule Turkey for another 50 years,’ says Ben-Meir. ‘He cannot dispute that there is a clear record of what he has done. At a minimum he must release political prisoners.’

In June, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) warned Turkey that democratic backsliding continued to stymie its chances of joining the EU. Nacho Sánchez Amor, an MEP, cited concerns that Turkey was moving towards a ‘fully authoritarian model’ characterised by the ‘broader erosion of democratic pluralism and the rule of law,’ including the weaponisation of the judiciary ‘for political purposes.’ Turkey’s Foreign Ministry rejected the report, describing the allegations against the country’s judiciary as ‘baseless.’

Uss believes that ending discussions about Turkey’s EU accession altogether would be the wrong approach. ‘If Turkey wants to continue down the path to EU accession, this is already a very good thing,’ he says. ‘I believe it is much better to continue the discussions, have a dialogue and go piece by piece. Human rights and the rule of law in Turkey will not get better if the EU simply says no to the accession talks.’