Forty-two volunteers from the TEMA Foundation, Turkey’s leading environmental group, were questioned over alleged links to a far-left organization after they were detained ahead of a NATO summit in Ankara, according to their lawyer and interrogation records, Turkish Minute reported, citing Deutsche Welle’s Turkish edition.
The volunteers, many of them retired teachers, academics and elderly environmental activists, were detained earlier this week in operations carried out before the NATO summit, which will be held in Ankara on July 7-8.
Most of those questioned were between the ages of 60 and 79 and had taken part in nature trips organized by TEMA.
The volunteers were expected to be referred to the Ankara Courthouse on Thursday to give statements to prosecutors after the completion of procedures by the gendarmerie.
They were questioned at the counterterrorism department of the Ankara Provincial Gendarmerie Command on suspicion of membership in the outlawed Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist (TKP/ML).
During questioning the volunteers were directly accused of links to the TKP/ML.
According to the interrogation records, they were asked about their alleged links to the TKP/ML, whether they had used a “code name,” received weapons training, taken instructions from the group or participated in any actions on its behalf.
They were also asked what they knew about the group’s alleged couriers, communications network and sources of financing, and whether they had any relatives or close acquaintances in terrorist organizations.
One of the volunteers questioned, 63-year-old retired S.Ç., denied the accusations and said the only organization of which she is a member is the TEMA Foundation.
“I have no connection, affiliation or involvement with the organization you mentioned or any other organization. I do not know such an organization. I do not even have information about its activities. I have an elderly mother who has Alzheimer’s disease and is bedridden. My only job is to look after her and take care of her,” she said in her statement.
S.Ç. said she had no code name because she was not a member of any criminal organization.
TEMA Foundation lawyer Süleyman Çetin said the 42 detainees were volunteers who had joined a foundation trip to the Nallıhan Bird Sanctuary on June 3.
According to Çetin, the group encountered miners staging a protest at a gas station on their way back. The bus carrying the TEMA volunteers was later stopped three times for identity checks.
“They probably marked them as a group that supported this protest,” Çetin said, suggesting that the investigation may be linked to that encounter.
He said several detainees became unwell during the process, adding that a 79-year-old volunteer who was receiving cancer treatment was released because of her health.
“They are trying to make terrorists out of teachers,” he said, adding that many of the detainees were retired teachers or educators.
Çetin also claimed that even some gendarmerie personnel involved in taking statements appeared surprised by the detentions.
“When they understood what had happened, even some of them asked, ‘What are these people doing here?’” he said.
“The aim is to intimidate TEMA. We don’t know whether they were worried that the volunteers might stage an action before the NATO summit or whether this was done because they came across the miners. But what we have here are volunteers who take part in environmental activities,” he added.
The detentions came as part of a larger operation in Ankara before the NATO summit.
Turkish police had detained more than 200 people suspected of links to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and outlawed far-left groups on Tuesday as part of that operation.
The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said at the time that it had issued detention warrants for 241 people, with counterterrorism police detaining 209 in early morning raids.
Of those detained, 185 were suspected of membership in several far-left organizations, including the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), which has carried out attacks in the past and is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey.
Rights groups and local media said the detainees included journalist Yıldız Tar, editor-in-chief of the LGBTQ news website KaosGL.org, three lawyers, an academic and a union official.
The Ankara Governor’s Office announced late Monday that all demonstrations would be banned from June 28 until the end of the summit, citing summit security and public order.
The detentions have fueled criticism that the Turkish government is using the NATO summit to justify extraordinary security measures that are disrupting daily life in Ankara and placing ordinary civic activity under suspicion.
