France on Wednesday said it had closed its embassy in the Turkish capital Ankara and its consulate in Istanbul until further notice, after cancelling events to mark the July 14 Bastille Day holiday due to a "real and concrete" security threat.
The sudden closures of the missions came with Turkey on edge after the triple suicide attack last month on Istanbul's main airport which was blamed on Islamic State (IS) jihadists. "The Embassy of France in Ankara, as well as the Consulate General in Istanbul will be closed from Wednesday July 13, 1:00 pm (1000 GMT), until further notice," the embassy said in a statement after scrapping the July 14 receptions at the missions on security grounds. The doors of its premises were shut with a sign in French and Turkish saying the mission was closed for security reasons. Armed police patrolled outside.
France's consulate in Istanbul, its embassy in Ankara and its mission in the Aegean city of Izmir were all to have held celebrations marking the July 14 French national day.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said he had personally taken the decision to cancel the receptions after receiving information about a "real and concrete threat".
"The information which we received, and was confirmed by an exchange with the Turkish services, showed that there was a real and concrete threat," he told reporters in Paris, without giving any details.
Earlier, the Istanbul consulate sent an email message to French citizens in Turkey saying there had been "concurring information of a serious threat against the organisation of the July 14 celebrations in Turkey". Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus suggested, in an interview with the A Haber TV channel, the threat could be from IS as the jihadists have previously targeted France and could do so again, "It is known France is a target for Daesh. Across the world, there is a potential for attacks against French targets. I hope we do not face this in Turkey but all precautions are being taken," he said, using the Arabic acronym for IS.
However, he said he did not know what specific threat France was referring to. He vowed that Turkish authorities would always protect French officials in the country. The June 28 attack on Ataturk International Airport raised new alarm over the security of foreigners in Turkey after a spate of attacks this year blamed on jihadists and Kurdish militants.
Thirty-seven suspects have been placed under arrest over suspicion of involvement in the attacks and belonging to IS. Of these, 15 are Turks and 22 foreigners, according to official media. Authorities have said a number of citizens of ex-Soviet republics are among the suspects, raising concerns over the threat to Turkey from Islamist militancy in the Central Asia and the Northern Caucasus.
But of seven suspects arrested earlier this week, three are Algerian, two Tunisian and two Egyptian, the state-run Anadolu Agency said. Several foreign missions in Turkey, including the embassies and consulates of Germany and the United States, have closed for short periods this year due to a security threat.
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