Cemre Nayir and about 30 other Thousand Youth for Palestine activists gathered on July 22, 2024, ready to disrupt the IDEF 2025, a Turkish Armed Forces Foundation fair hosting several weapons manufacturers with Israeli business dealings. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was also poised to speak at the event. Nayir and his friends, however, never even got close.
Turkish authorities cut public transit and roads to the expo, forcing activists to settle on chants and press releases two kilometers away at the Yenibosna Metro station. Authorities used the same tactic to quell May 1st Workers Day protests this year.
The distance from the event halls did not stop the formation of a police blockade over double the crowd’s size, nor what would ensue later that evening.
Police captured 16 activists from their homes in late evening raids. They were handcuffed behind their backs, and some reported police violence. Of those, only one, Ismail Çelik, a 22-year-old Kurdish activist donning an Amedspor soccer uniform, a team known for its Kurdish roots, would remain in Silvri Prison, where he spent over two months. Çelik still faces charges of “insulting the president” over the slogan “murderer Israel, collaborator Erdogan.”
Nayir’s home raid came around 9:00 p.m.
“I went home and I got in, it wasn’t even five minutes … and I heard the doorbell ringing,” said Nayir. “I felt something was wrong, and something was wrong because it turns out they were waiting outside my house.”
Late night and early dawn raids have become a fixture in the lives of Turkish pro-Palestine activists, more specifically those who call attention to Turkiye’s ongoing diplomatic, trade, and intelligence relationships with Israel.
Among the Turkish people, support for Palestine is ubiquitous. Palestinian flags adorn streets and alleyways across Istanbul. Similarly, so do pro-Palestine demonstrations. In fact, it’s not rare to see two separate Palestine actions side by side, but they don’t always share the same demands or politics. For some, it’s simply about demonstrating support for the resistance, for others, such as Thousand Youth for Palestine, they want to see changes in Turkish policy. It’s the latter that faces police suppression.
Activist Sena Eğri hasn’t experienced the raids personally, but she has been assaulted by police several times. She’s also felt the grip of Turkish surveillance. She said that plainclothes officers often follow her and her friends, especially when they get tea after actions, which has become a tradition among her fellow organizers.
“They’re constantly following us … sometimes I can feel that someone is watching me when I’m just walking on the street … I think the surveillance continues even after the protests, it’s like big brother is constantly watching us,” said Eğri.
Several activists confirmed that although evening house raids are not new in Turkish politics, they are new in the pro-Palestine scene specifically. They’ve also been used as a tactic to quell dissent during recent mass protests against the arrest of opposition presidential candidate Ekrem Imamoglu.
“If they set the police loose in front of us, it will create an image that shows visibly clearly that this government is not pro-Palestine at all,” said Nayir. “That they’re first and foremost protecting the needs and necessities of capital, before the people in Palestine.”
The dawn raids have a chilling psychological effect, but the alternative risks poor optics and emboldening others to join. This was the case early in the movement post-October 7. Police brutality videos of an Istiklal Street protest radicalized Eğri into joining.
“That’s how I learned about Filistin için bin genç” said Eğri, using the Turkish name for Thousand Youth for Palestine. “I saw people my age were going onto the streets for this bravery.”
When police violence does occur now, officers usually do it from behind riot shield lines to avoid cameras, Eğri clarified.
It’s not rare to see dozens of police buses lining the streets, hundreds of cops armed with riot gear or TOMAs, armed water cannon vehicles designed for crowd control. Police videographers line up alongside barricades to record activists for later prosecution. Eğri believes these recordings are why officers often recognize the group’s members.
In response to activist demands, the Turkish government claims that it has cut all trade relations with Israel, and has reaffirmed this several times. However, publicly available ship tracking data confirms shipments from Turkish ports still head to Israel on a frequent basis, most notably from the Baku Tbilisi Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline, which researchers from the Energy Embargo for Palestine confirm is being used for fighter jet fuel. The BTC pipeline accounts for up to 40 percent of Israel’s oil needs and is largely owned by the Azerbaijani state-owned oil and gas company SOCAR and BP, with logistics support from Turkiye.
Embargo enforcement mechanisms have also been incredibly loose. Reuters reported that Turkish harbor masters made an informal, verbal request that port agents provide written pledges that shipments were not headed to Israel.
Some shipping companies have used various other methods to circumvent accountability, such as changing flags, turning off AIS tracking data before arriving in Israel, and taking longer routes. They don’t always bother, though. Some Turkish-flagged ships, such as the BURAK DEVAL, continue to sail directly to Israeli ports.
A significant piece of the work done by Turkish and international activists has been tracking these shipping patterns, calling out complicit parties and pressuring them accordingly.
Despite this, many Turkish corporations remain allied with Israel, as does the Erdogan government. Turkiye’s NATO membership ties it firmly in the Western bloc, but it also works to build influence in the Middle East, which requires maintaining the image of a protector of Palestinians.
“This Palestine issue has been hurting his public image as a leader of the Muslim world,” said Nayir. “It’s completely destroyed at this point. Nobody believes it … He has to protect this image and also the interests of the West as well.”
Large Turkish companies also stand to benefit. Many of these companies, such as Koc Holdings, Sabanci Holdings, and Zorlu Holdings, maintain close relationships with the ruling AK party. But after boycotts and public pressure, Zorlu Energy announced that it pulled out of Israel.
Nayir’s other role as an organizer with the Polen Ecology Collective has made him especially concerned about the gains Turkish capital can make from the occupation.
“There will be lots of chances for Turkish capital to expand into the Middle East … they have a lot of business with logistics because they are trying to profit off of facilitating the flow of fossil fuels and raw materials, specifically for Gaza, they want to do construction business and keep profiting from the fossil fuel extraction and logistics business, we think.”
Eğri believes that the group has been able to pressure some trade losses with Israel. Official Bank of Israel data support this. The volume of Turkish imports decreased from about $550 million per month at the beginning of 2024 to about $100-200 million by the end of the year. Nayir is skeptical. However, he does believe that the lengths shipping companies have had to go to conceal the trade, such as taking longer routes, have led to profit losses. For him, this is a win.
Many members believe public opinion around Turkiye’s trade with Israel is starting to turn. The group seems to be getting less backlash from the public than the year prior, and their demands for a full Israeli embargo, including an end to intelligence sharing with Israel from NATO bases in Turkiye, are gaining popularity.
Given the AKP’s often repeated announcements about the trade ban, it seems Turkish citizens are more skeptical of the ruling party’s relationship with Israel than ever. This growing popular frustration could pose increased risks of suppression as Ankara works overtime to combat the narrative that Turkiye is, indeed, a collaborator in Israel’s genocide.
Çelik’s case represented a turning point for local activists because it was the first time they could remember someone being thrown in jail for calling Erdogan a collaborator with Israel. He’s certainly not the only case though. Palestinian activist Mehmet Şimşek, not to be confused with the Turkish Minister of Treasury and Finance, was also recently detained in an evening raid. And some Arab activists have stepped away from the cause amid looming risks of deportation.
Çelik’s release though, which occurred just days before the anniversary of October 7, gives activists a rare cause for celebration amid the hardships of suppression and the ongoing grief of genocide. And in a fashion that didn’t surprise any of his friends, he was on the street again just days later.
On October 7th, 2025, Çelik stood yet again before another police barricade, perhaps with some of them the same officers who had arrested him just two months prior, and about 200 protestors in front of SOCAR’s Istanbul office. He chose to speak without a microphone, preferring to project his voice for all to hear.
“So I ask you all: is it not hypocrisy to say ‘we cut trade’ while oil is still going from your country to murderer Israel, while you arrest your country’s Palestine activists, throwing them in jail … and saying selam to [other] Palestine activists?” Çelik asked.
“Everything is plainly visible and the necessary actions are clear. We must set all ideologies and opinions aside, and unite on the cause of the Palestinian people.”
