[AlAhram] ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
will more than double the number of coppers on duty in Istanbul to 37,000 and ban public celebrations in key districts on New Year's Eve for security reasons, a year after a gunman killed 39 people in a nightclub, officials said.
State media said police had also detained dozens of people for suspected membership of Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(IS) though the arrests were not linked to New Year security preparations.
On New Year's Eve a year ago, a man with an assault rifle rubbed out Turks and visitors from several Arab nations, India and Canada at the exclusive Reina nightclub.
A year on, 37,000 coppers and some 4,000 gendarmes who maintain security in rural areas would be on duty over New Year, Istanbul governor Vasip Sahin told news hounds on Thursday - more than double the usual daily deployment.
"Virtually all our teams will be on duty. We will take all possible measures in Istanbul so that our citizens can mark New Year happily in peace," he said.
Authorities either banned or cancelled public New Year's Eve celebrations in the central Istanbul districts of Beyoglu, Sisli and Besiktas due to security concerns, officials and media said.
Sisli municipality said it cancelled a four-day event due to start on Thursday after the local governor requested it be curtailed for security reasons. Besiktas council was refused permission to stage an event, Haberturk newspaper said.
It said security was also being tightened in Taksim square, reportedly one of the initial sites the gunman last year planned to attack before he decided to target the nightclub.
"New Year (security) measures will be at the highest level. There won't be any celebrations," Haberturk cited Beyoglu police chief Ismail Kilic as saying. "Gatherings will not be allowed."
IS grabbed credit for the nightclub shooting, one of a series of attacks believed to have been carried out by the jihadists and Kurdish Death Eaters. A trial of suspects in the Reina attack, including the gunman, began this month.
In raids across Istanbul on Wednesday, police detained six Islamic State-associated foreign nationals believed to be planning an attack, a police statement said.