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Police officers outside Notre-Dame Cathedral during a memorial service this weekend. PA Wire

Turkey 'foiled a major terror plot' on the same day as the Paris attacks

Authorities are investigating if the foiled plot had any links with events in Paris.

TURKISH AUTHORITIES FOILED a plot to stage a “major” attack in Istanbul on the same day as the deadly gun and suicide attacks in Paris, a senior official said today.

Police on Friday detained five people in Istanbul, the source told AFP, including a suspected close associate of the notorious Islamic State (IS) group militant known as “Jihadi John” who Washington believes was likely killed in a recent drone strike in Syria.

“We believe they were planning an attack in Istanbul on the same day as the Paris attacks” on Friday, the official said on condition of anonymity.

“The initial investigation shows we foiled a major attack.”

Aine Lesley Davis – like “Jihadi John” a British citizen who guarded foreign prisoners in Syria – was among the IS suspects detained in a swoop in Istanbul.

Davis, a London-born British Muslim who turned to Islamist militancy, has been described by British media in the past as a key figure in the network of IS in Syria.

Davis and the other four fellow jihadists had crossed into Turkey from Syria at an unspecified date.

Turkish authorities are investigating if the foiled plot had any links with the Paris attacks which killed at least 129 people, the Turkish official said.

“All possibilities are being evaluated,” the official said, adding it was possible that those detained had also been planning an attack in Europe.

“Jihadi John”, whose real name is Mohammed Emwazi, is the masked figure who appeared in a string of graphic videos showing the beheading of Western hostages.

He was targeted in a combined British-US operation Thursday in Raqa, the de facto IS capital in war-torn Syria.

The US military said on Friday it was “reasonably certain” that the notorious executioner had been killed in the drone strike.

Stepped up security measures

Long criticised by its Western allies for failure to take robust action to stem the flow of IS militants across its porous border, Turkey has stepped up security measures in recent months but says the West has also responsibility for sharing intelligence.

Hayat Boumeddiene, the partner of one of the gunmen behind the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris in January crossed into Syria from Turkey.

The arrest of the five suspected IS jihadists came ahead of a summit of G20 leaders gathering in Turkey’s southern resort of Antalya on Sunday and Monday.

“Syria has become a training ground for terrorists,” the Turkish official said.

“There is a need for joint initiatives to fight terrorism and solve the Syrian crisis.”

Turkey is in intensive dialogue with France, the official said adding: “Our priority is how we can find the murderers. It’s not a good time for a blame game.”

Read: Police release photo of on-the-run suspect in Paris attacks

Read: What we know so far about the Paris attackers

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    Mute pjm
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    Nov 15th 2015, 8:51 PM

    Call me a cynic but its hard to believe anything coming from that Turkish government. They say they are fighting IS yet an open borders policy with Syria has kept supply routes to IS and other islamists going, they also don’t stop the sale of oil from IS controlled areas in Turkey and bomb the crap out of the Kurds in Syria/Turkey as well.

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    Mute Chief
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    Nov 15th 2015, 8:54 PM

    Hey cynic…

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    Mute Patrick J O'CONNOR
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    Nov 15th 2015, 9:36 PM

    @pjm. Dead right. Erdogan is a pathological liar and murderer. Erdogan’s party,the AKP.was up against it prior to last elections and needed a corer more votes from the ultra-nationalists. To this end he is suspected of massacaring the Kurdis demostrators outside Istanbul’s main station killing over 100 poeple.
    —”Nowadays, both foreign press and opposition parties in Turkey claim that the order for the attack in Ankara was given by AKP government. These parties also say that the bomb attack at an HDP rally on 05 July and Suruç Massacre on 20 July were also ordered by AKP authorities. According to these sources, AKP government is planning to reduce the votes of HDP by creating social chaos and by employing anti-Kurdish, Turkish nationalist language. Since the majority of Turkish people have strong nationalist tendencies, they may come together against pro-Kurdish HDP and AKP may have a chance to win the elections and form a one-party government.—”
    https://www.facebook.com/istanbulrevolution/posts/1657919304425360?comment_id=1657923594424931&rep

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    Mute Fred Astare Astare
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    Nov 15th 2015, 10:58 PM

    Here is photos of shabiha already in Europe. Warning some pics very graphic.
    You have been warned.
    https://unfetteredfreedom.wordpress.com/2015/10/03/list-of-shabiha-posing-as-refugees-in-europe/

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    Mute Paul Mc
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    Nov 15th 2015, 8:54 PM

    Hopefully Turkey are never allowed to join the European Union.

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    Mute Tomestical
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    Nov 15th 2015, 9:24 PM

    Mama Merkel already said she will do everything to speed up the process…

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    Mute gregory
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    Nov 15th 2015, 9:40 PM

    Turkey buying illegal oil from isis

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    Mute Mel_Inoe
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    Nov 15th 2015, 8:54 PM

    Educate yourself on what is happening across Europe and watch this video. Foiled attacks that come to nothing are ongoing across Europe with many going undocumented by the media due to withheld information from the
    government, only coming into the public domain 6 or 12 months down the line.

    With up to hundreds of young, angry, military trained Islamic men flooding into Europe disguised as terrified refugees with no documentation and a well rehearsed sob story for the Sky News cameras, one would wonder why leaders aren’t doing the opposite and closing our borders and protecting European citizens. These attacks will become commonplace once the media circle jerk and liberal do-gooders go onto their next social justice conquest and the brunt of the “refuges” have been taken in.

    However, the small and quiet, law abiding, tax paying communities devastated by the disastrous immigration policy of the EU will no doubt have been scarred for years to come. Already there have been men assaulted, women raped, and children molested by these uneducated, uncivilized “refugees” that aren’t as peaceful and timid as the western media would have you believe.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44vzMNG2fZc

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    Mute gregory
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    Nov 15th 2015, 9:42 PM
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    Mute Ed
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    Nov 15th 2015, 9:20 PM

    The 1st stage of dealing with these so called militants is that they should be wiped out of existence. By that I mean their names should receive no mention in the media. All records of their lives should be destroyed including their birth certs, bank accounts, education and employment records. Rather than giving them notoriety treat them as though they never existed like the insignificant vermin they are.

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    Mute Ryan Barker
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    Nov 16th 2015, 1:23 AM

    And let them murder hundreds if innocent European citizens, and regarding your plan, we would no longer have any identification or proof of their existence. Bad idea pal.

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    Mute Tony_Kilduff
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    Nov 15th 2015, 9:59 PM

    The 5 arrested crossed from Syria to Turkey… There must be some mistake, sure aren’t they all just innocent refugees coming out of Syria ?

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    Mute Ryan Barker
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    Nov 16th 2015, 1:28 AM

    I honestly cannot see why they were welcomed into Europe. In the next three years I’m sure it will turn out to be the biggest Fck up. There is no way of identifying IS members to fleeing refugees. Now every country in Europe is writhing with hidden IS members waiting for the orders. Just my opinion.

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    Mute Rowe
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    Nov 15th 2015, 8:57 PM
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    Mute gregory
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    Nov 15th 2015, 9:27 PM

    France: 30 air strikes against RAQQA syria hq today. Isis crossing into eu posing as refugees;
    https://www.rt.com/news/314788-hungary-migrants-isis-terrorists/

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    Mute pjm
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    Nov 15th 2015, 9:39 PM

    Those air strikes are futile if they aren’t in support of troops on the ground fighting and giving co-ordinates. The Syrian army are having a lot of success around Aleppo at the moment taking back towns and lifting IS sieges due to Russian air support. Yet again today Obama was on about regime change, it seems to be a bigger priority to them.

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    Mute Rasputin
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    Nov 15th 2015, 9:50 PM

    ‘Regime change’… They never learn do they. Not once since the end of WW2 has that actually ever worked.

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    Mute Seán Ó Donnaile
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    Nov 16th 2015, 3:01 AM

    Oh wow another ally of the U.S. Hummm

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