Gov’t suspects foreign intelligence services’ role in Istanbul attack

ANKARA

AFP photo

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş has suggested that “foreign intelligence services” could be behind the attack that claimed 39 lives at Istanbul’s Reina nightclub on New Year’s Eve, considering how “professionally” the attack was carried out.

“I am of the opinion that it’s not possible for the perpetrator to have carried out such an attack without any support. It seems like a secret service thing. All these things are being assessed,” Kurtulmuş told the Hürriyet Daily News on Jan. 4.

He declined to go into details about which secret services he was referring to. 

Kurtulmuş also said the government and Turkey’s security bodies are working on what additional measures can be taken in the face of rising terror.

“As they are supported by some organizations with intelligence capacity, they can conduct terror acts in the way your security system may not even be able to think of,” he added.