At least 16 demonstrators were detained in İstanbul on Tuesday on accusations of insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan following a protest against the 17th International Defence Industry Fair (IDEF 2025), which hosts defense contractors known to supply weapons and military technology to Israel, Turkish Minute reported.
The arms fair, organized by Turkey’s defense ministry, opened on Tuesday at the İstanbul Expo Center and is set to run through July 27. It has sparked an outcry from pro-Palestinian activists, particularly the Palestine Action Committee, which organized a protest at the nearby Yenibosna metro station on Tuesday under a heavy police presence.
The demonstration was initially scheduled to take place outside Atatürk Airport. However, the İstanbul Governor’s Office suspended metro service between the World Trade Center (DTM) and the Atatürk Airport stops on the Yenikapı–Atatürk Airport line and canceled bus routes to the area. In response, organizers relocated the protest to the Yenibosna metro exit.
Activists accused the authorities in İstanbul of trying to block access to the protest site. Despite the presence of a large number of police officers, the demonstration proceeded peacefully in its new location.
During the protests, activists held placards reading “Down with genocide partners,” “Stop arming genocidal Israel” and “No passage for companies fueling genocide.” They chanted slogans including “Free Palestine from the river to the sea,” “The Palestinian people are not alone” and “Genocidal capital out of İstanbul.” Others shouted, “Murderer Israel, collaborator AKP” and “Murderer Israel, collaborator Erdoğan,” in reference to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Police issued warnings during the protest over certain slogans and later detained demonstrators after the crowd dispersed. According to reports from the Palestine Action Committee shared with Bianet, police began detaining people “from the street, from buses, and through nighttime raids” immediately after the demonstration. As of Wednesday, at least 16 people had been detained.
The detainees were taken to İstanbul Police headquarters where they were accused of “insulting the president.” The allegation reportedly stems from the slogan “Murderer Israel, collaborator Erdoğan.”
At the protest, committee member Öyküm Bozkurt condemned the IDEF fair for providing a platform to companies that profit from what she called Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
“This fair hosts dozens of companies that fuel the Israeli military, allowing them to market weapons tested on Palestinians,” Bozkurt said.
She criticized the Turkish government’s protection of defense giants such as Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Leonardo, GE Aerospace, Rolls-Royce Power Systems and others, saying:“While claiming to stand with the Palestinian people, the government enables these companies to showcase and sell their products, from fighter jets and missiles to armored vehicles and submarines, even as Palestinians die of starvation.”
The UN World Food Program said on Monday that Gaza’s hunger crisis has reached “new and astonishing levels of desperation.” Nearly 100,000 women and children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition. and a third of Gaza’s population is going days without eating, Ross Smith, the agency’s director for emergencies, said.
Bozkurt called for an immediate halt to all military and commercial ties with companies linked to Israel’s military operations. “Turkey must end its complicity by expelling these companies and banning all joint activities. It must urgently impose a full military embargo on Israel,” she said.
In May 2024 Turkey halted all direct trade with Israel in response to mounting domestic criticism of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
However, the Turkish government has faced protests and accusations for allegedly continuing trade with Israel while adopting a harsh anti-Israeli rhetoric, with President Erdoğan repeatedly accusing Israel of “genocidal behavior” and comparing the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu administration’s actions to those seen in Nazi Germany.
Despite the government’s anti-Israel rhetoric, pro-Palestinian activists in Turkey face close scrutiny, with many detained simply for staging protests against what they describe as the country’s continued trade with Israel.
The protesters are expected to be referred to İstanbul’s main courthouse within hours.
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza following a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 that resulted in the death of 1,206 people and the taking of some 250 hostages.
According to the health ministry in Gaza, the Israeli military has killed at least 59,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 142,000 since October 7, 2023.
A report released by Amnesty International on December 5 concludes that Israel’s actions in Gaza qualify as genocide.
