Turkish police have arrested a suspected member of the Islamic State (ISIS) whom they believe was planning to attack a World War One commemoration in Turkey, attended by hundreds of Australians and New Zealanders, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
A 26-year-old Syrian national with suspected links to ISIS was detained in Tekirdag, a northwestern province close to the Gallipoli peninsula where the commemorations were held, Reuters quoted a Tekirdag police spokesman as saying.
Thousands of Australians and New Zealanders travel to Turkey every year to commemorate the failed 1915 military campaign by ANZAC and allied forces to drive Ottoman troops from Gallipoli and the Dardanelles region.
Soldiers from New Zealand, Australia, Turkey, and other countries held several services on the Gallipoli peninsula on Wednesday.
Australians and New Zealanders held a special dawn service to mark the landings by ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) forces at dawn on Thursday.
The Turkish government banned its citizens, including bus drivers and tour guides, from the Gallipoli peninsula for Thursday’s dawn service due to security concerns, according to a news report by Cumhuriyet daily on Wednesday.
The Demiroren News Agency (DHA) reported that the suspect was allegedly plotting an attack on the ANZAC Day commemorations in retaliation for the mass shootings on Muslims that took place in New Zealand’s Christchurch city on March 15.
Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, a suspected white supremacist, has been charged with the murder of fifty people, including four women, in the country’s worst ever mass shooting taking place in two mosques during Friday prayers. He also faces 39 attempted murder charges.
According to the report by Reuters on Wednesday, the police spokesman did not specify which day the detained suspect may have been planning to carry out an attack.
ISIS carried out several bombings in Turkey that killed more than 200 people in 2015 and 2016. Turkish authorities continue performing operations against suspected ISIS members although the militant group has not been active in Turkey of late.
This year’s ANZAC service comes a month after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received harsh criticism from Australia and New Zealand for his coffin remarks following the attack in New Zealand.
“Any Australians and New Zealanders traveling to Turkey with anti-Muslim sentiments would be sent back in coffins ‘like their grandfathers’ were in the Gallipoli campaign,” he said during a local government election rally, where he played a video of the mass shootings.
The Turkish president was referring to the soldiers from Australia and New Zealand who fought along with the British troops against the Ottoman Empire in the Dardanelles campaign as part of WWI.
Op-ed: In New Zealand Shooting, Erdogan Sees Political Scores to Make
The post ISIS suspect arrested in Turkey over planned ANZAC terror attack appeared first on IPA NEWS.
from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2019/04/25/isis-suspect-arrested-in-turkey-over-planned-anzac-terror-attack/
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