Governor issues order to maintain security over terror attack

ISTANBUL

After the bomb attack on Istanbul’s famous İstiklal Avenue that claimed the lives of six people and wounded several dozen, the governor has issued a “general order” regarding the measures to be taken to maintain security, peace and order on the street and to accelerate the flow of pedestrian traffic.

“In all consultations with store operators, tradesmen, professional organizations, local administrations and security units operating on İstiklal Avenue, which is around 1,400 meters long and has the heaviest pedestrian traffic in our country, the common demand was to ensure the flow of tram transportation and pedestrian traffic and to maintain continuity,” said the order issued by Ali Yerlikaya.

Accordingly, it will be “strictly prohibited” for businesses to put tables, chairs, boards or mobile signs on the street, open stands and exhibitions, mobile sales and sales counters, organize social, cultural or commercial events and perform collective or individual street music.

Necessary measures will be taken by authorized and responsible institutions and organizations, the order will be implemented with precision in accordance with the relevant provisions, and necessary actions will be taken against those who violate the order, it added.

According to the examination of the records and the statements of the detainees, the perpetrator, Ahlam Albashir, made reconnaissance of the avenue on three separate days with a pirate taxi driven by a man named Bilal Hassan and a member of the organization with whom she had come from Syria with before the attack, daily Hürriyet said earlier.

She said she got the action order from another PKK/YPG terrorist code-named Hacı. “He looked at the crowd and gave the order to detonate. I got up from the bench following the instruction and detonated the bomb.”

A couple, a mother and child and a father and child were killed in the Nov. 13 explosion.

Family and Social Services Minister Derya Yanık announced that Yusuf Meydan, an employee of the ministry, and his daughter Ecrin lost their lives in the attack.

Married in 2020, Adem Topkara and Mukaddes Elif Topkara were also caught in the explosion while looking at the shop windows on İstiklal Avenue. The couple died on the spot.

A woman, Arzu Özsoy, and her 15-year-old daughter were also among those killed in the attack.