US President Donald Trump arrived in Ankara on Tuesday for the opening of the two-day NATO Summit, where alliance leaders are set to discuss defence spending, military support for Ukraine and strengthening defence production.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed Trump upon his arrival at Esenboga Airport before the US president headed to the presidential complex for an official welcoming ceremony.

The two leaders are scheduled to hold bilateral talks followed by delegation-level meetings focusing on regional and international issues. They are also expected to address the media at a joint news conference.

Earlier in the day, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine visited Anitkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Türkiye. Accompanied by a US delegation, Caine observed a moment of silence and laid a wreath at Ataturk’s tomb.

The NATO summit has brought together heads of state and government from alliance members, along with leaders from key partner nations. Discussions are expected to centre on implementing defence spending commitments agreed at last year’s summit in The Hague, maintaining military assistance for Ukraine and expanding the alliance’s defence industrial capacity.

Turkish authorities detained more than 100 people taking part in an anti-NATO protest march organised by the Communist Party ​of Turkey (TKP) on Sunday, ahead of an alliance summit in Ankara next week, ‌the party said in a statement.

Turkey will host leaders from the 32 allied countries, as well as officials from NATO’s partners, in Ankara for a summit on Tuesday and Wednesday. Authorities have ramped up security measures across the ​Turkish capital ahead of the meeting, banning demonstrations, barricading large parts of the city, ​and closing off roads, Reuters reported.

In a statement, the TKP said it had organised the ⁠protest march in Ankara’s central Kizilay square, adding that more than 100 party members, including administrators, ​had been detained.

Footage showed flag-waving protesters chanting slogans including “Murderer NATO, get out of country” and “No passage ​to NATO”, as riot police intervened using tear gas to disperse crowds.

In a separate protest organised by the TKP, hundreds of people marched from Istanbul’s Taksim Square to Dolmabahce. There were also two separate protests organised by leftist ​groups in the Kadikoy district. Despite a heavy police presence, there were no scuffles during the ​protests in Istanbul.

“We have gathered today in many parts of Turkey to protest against NATO,” TKP Secretary General ‌Kemal ⁠Okuyan said in Istanbul.

“We said that we would not hand over Ankara to supporters of NATO, that we would not allow Ankara to remain silent. We have fulfilled that promise.”

The government did not immediately comment on the protests or the detentions.

Authorities last month arrested 103 people as part of anti-terror raids in ​Ankara in which 225 ​people were detained.

Separately, 39 ⁠others, including journalists from independent outlets, activists, and academics, were detained in anti-terror raids across the country, media reported on Sunday.

Tuncer Bakirhan, co-chair of ​Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party, and main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) court-appointed chairman ​Kemal Kilicdaroglu ⁠criticised the detentions as unacceptable measures hindering basic rights ahead of the NATO summit.

“The country has been fully turned into a detention centre by using the NATO summit as an excuse,” Bakirhan said on ⁠X. “We are ​living through days of undeclared martial law.”

Turkish prosecutors have ​previously said the operations were part of efforts to uncover militant group activities, without mentioning the summit.

A bomb blast at a cafe in central Damascus on Thursday killed nine people and wounded 20 others, Syria’s interior ministry ​said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Syrian state television said an explosive ‌device had been planted at the cafe, near the Palace of Justice in the centre of the capital, Reuters reported.

The interior ministry said preliminary investigations showed the blast was caused by a crudely made explosive device ​weighing about one kilogram and packed with metal shrapnel, causing severe injuries and ​extensive damage at the site.

Videos that circulated on social media showed wounded ⁠people and blood on the floors of a cafe, purportedly the site of the ​blast. Reuters could not immediately verify the footage.

The attack presents another security challenge to the ​Syrian government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who took control after overthrowing former President Bashar al-Assad in late 2024. Assad’s ouster effectively ended more than 14 years of civil war.

Damascus has witnessed a handful of ​security incidents since then, including a car bomb that killed one Syrian soldier and ​wounded at least 18 people outside the defence ministry in May.

Although no group claimed responsibility for Thursday’s ‌blast, Islamic ⁠State has sought to exploit the security vacuum created by Assad’s ouster by reactivating sleeper cells, recruiting fighters and moving weapons as the new government extends its authority across the country, security officials had said.

The militant group announced earlier this year what it described ​as a new phase ​of operations against ⁠Sharaa’s government.

The group is far weaker than when it controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq before the collapse of its self-declared caliphate ​in 2019. It remains capable of carrying out deadly insurgency-style attacks ​and is ⁠viewed by Syrian, Iraqi and Western officials as one of the biggest threats to Syria’s transition.

Sharaa’s other opponents include Assad-era officers and soldiers. In 2025, Syria was rocked by fighting between ⁠the ​new government forces and insurgents from Syria’s Alawite minority, ​and separately between government forces and Druze gunmen.