Istanbul Governor: No Tip Off On Terrorist Attack Targeting NATO Summit

ISTANBUL - Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler said on Monday that there hasn`t been any tip off yet on a terrorist attack targeting NATO Summit.
When journalists reminded Guler that police have detained some people in Bursa and Istanbul, reported to be members of Ansar al-Islam having links with Al Qaeda, who are believed to have been planning a bomb attack during the NATO summit in Istanbul in June and asked about the security measures for the summit, he said a series of activities would take place in Istanbul starting from the Eurovision Song Contest till to the NATO summit.
Guler said, ``Istanbul is a congress center. It is ready for the NATO summit. Preparations regarding the summit have been completed. Now that time came for the measures where it would be applied point by point.``
Guler said a meeting would take place in Ankara in the coming days, stating that, ``we have not yet received a tip off that there will be a terrorist attack targeting NATO summit. However, every kind of measures are being taken against every possibility in such meetings. We have taken every kind of measures for the meeting where presidents, prime ministers, national defense ministers, chiefs of general staffs and delegations of 55 countries would join.``
(AY-AÖ) 03.05.2004