David Wroe
National security correspondent
The Sydney Morning Herald
Thousands of Australians attending the Gallipoli centenary on Anzac Day will be protected by a massive phalanx of nearly 4000 Turkish police and paramilitary troops amid terrorism fears.
Security concerns were heightened on Wednesday after a young woman blew herself up at a police station in Istanbul’s busy tourist district, killing one officer.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told Fairfax Media that “this latest attack in Istanbul against a police station underlines the seriousness” of her department’s advice that travellers to Turkey “exercise a high degree of caution”.
With thousands of Australians due to arrive in Turkey in the coming months ahead of the Anzac centenary in April, security agency ASIO is understood to be undertaking a painstaking assessment of possible threats, including terrorism.
Turkey is the main corridor for foreign fighters headed to join Islamist groups in neighbouring Syria and Iraq.
A spokesman for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs – which is planning the Gallipoli services – said Turkish authorities were taking the security preparations “very seriously”.
“DVA has been advised that there will be 3700 police and paramilitary police deployed on the Gallipoli peninsula for the services in April,” the spokesman said.
Ms Bishop said Australian officials were working closely with Turkish counterparts on security arrangements. Government agencies would “continue to monitor closely the security situation and threat levels relating to the Gallipoli commemorations”.
Some 8000 Australians received tickets to the Gallipoli Anzac Day service in a national ballot. Tony Abbott is expected to be joined by international dignitaries including Prince Charles and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In Istanbul’s Sultanahmet district, close to the key attractions of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, a young woman reportedly attacked a police station with hand grenades on Tuesday.
She was shot as she pulled the pin on one of the grenades, which then exploded, killing one officer and wounding another, the Wall Street Journal reported.
While no group had claimed responsibility as of Wednesday evening, Turkish media were reporting she belonged to a radical left-wing group DHKP-C, which also carried out an attack in the city last week.
The banned Marxist group is just one of the movements that pose a serious terrorism risk in Turkey, which also include Kurdish separatists and Islamic extremists.
The attack came as Ms Bishop’s department updated its travel alert for India, warning that information gathered in mid-December indicated “militants may be planning attacks against upmarket hotels in Mumbai” – stoking memories of the 2008 Mumbai siege in which 164 people died.
Ms Bishop urged all Australians travelling abroad to study her department’s advice on the Smartraveller website, which she said was “updated regularly with advice from our security and intelligence agencies and our diplomats who are on the ground”.
Australian National University terrorism expert Clarke Jones said intelligence and security co-operation between Australia and Turkey had not traditionally been very strong, though it was bolstered for Gallipoli services and was also improving under the handover of G20 host responsibilities, which go to Turkey this year.
He described the Anzac Day services as “high risk” for terrorism threats.
“It is a valuable target and it would be quite strategic for, say, Islamic State to launch something in Turkey. Gallipoli is a fair distance from the border of Syria and Iraq but distance is not big deal if they wanted to do it … especially given the porous border.”
Ms Bishop said in her first “Anzac Day bulletin” in November that Turkey was a “front line of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Syria” and the “security environment is volatile”, though there was “currently no indication” that terrorist groups planned to attack Australians, including at Gallipoli.