- Title: Turkey pays tribute to victims of nightclub attack
- Date: 2nd January 2017
- Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (JANUARY 2, 2017) (REUTERS) CARS DRIVING PAST REINA NIGHTCLUB EXTERIORS OF NIGHTCLUB VARIOUS OF SECURITY FORCES OUTSIDE NIGHTCLUB MEMBERS OF TURKEY DEMOCRACY PLATFORM HOLDING RED CARNATIONS (SOUNDBITE) (Turkish) PRESIDENT OF TURKEY DEMOCRACY PLATFORM, KEZBAN HATEMI, SAYING: "Turkey will not give up on its lifestyle, secularism and the rule of law with these messages (attacks). We will always uphold the rule of law and democracy regardless of what these immoral terrorist organizations such as PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) and Daesh (Islamic State) do." RED CARNATIONS ON GROUND VARIOUS OF PEOPLE LAYING RED CARNATIONS RED CARNATIONS ON GROUND CARS DRIVING PAST REINA NIGHTCLUB TURKISH FLAGS IN STREET EXTERIORS OF NIGHTCLUB DAMAGED BOARD OF NIGHTCLUB SECURITY FORCES OUTSIDE NIGHTCLUB
- Embargoed: 17th January 2017 10:50
- Keywords: Turkey attack gunfire. wounded casualties nightclub gun attack newspapers nightclub tribute flowers
- Location: ISTANBUL, TURKEY
- City: ISTANBUL, TURKEY
- Country: Turkey
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
- Reuters ID: LVA0015XDZU4N
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: People laid flowers outside Reina nightclub on Monday (January 2) to pay tribute to the victims of the New Year's attack that left 39 dead, including many foreigners.
Islamic State claimed responsibility on Monday for the attack that was carried out by a lone gunman who remains at large.
A massive security operation unfolded to track down the fugitive assailant or assailants and any conspirators.
Reina is one of Istanbul's best known nightspots, popular with local high society and foreigners. Some 600 people were thought to be inside when the gunman shot dead a policeman and civilian at the door, forced his way in and then opened fire.
Nationals of Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Lebanon, Libya, Israel, India, a Turkish-Belgian dual citizen and a Franco-Tunisian woman were among those killed at the exclusive nightclub on the shores of the Bosphorus waterway. Twenty-five of the dead were foreigners, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.
Kezban Hatemi, the President of Turkey Democracy Platform, who brought flowers to lay at the site said such attacks will not change Turkey's "lifestyle, secularism and the rule of law".
"We will always uphold the rule of law and democracy regardless of what these immoral terrorist organizations such as PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) and Daesh (Islamic State) do," Hatemi said.
Turkey faces multiple threats including spillover from the war in Syria. Beside its cross-border campaign against Islamic State, it is fighting Kurdish militants in its southeast.
Turkey has also been cracking down on Islamic State networks at home. In counter-terrorism operations between December 26 to January 2, Turkish police detained 147 people over links to the group and formally arrested 25 of them, the interior ministry said.
Several attacks were carried out in Turkey in recent weeks. On December 10, two bombs claimed by Kurdish militants exploded outside a soccer stadium in Istanbul, killing 44 people.
The New Year's Day attack came five months after a failed military coup, in which more than 240 people were killed, many of them in Istanbul, as rogue soldiers commandeered tanks and fighter jets in a bid to seize power. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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