PM: No evidence of Gallipoli plot

Australian and New Zealand politicians yesterday reassured tourists they were safe.

A woman is checked by Turkish military police at a security checkpoint in order to enter the Dawn Service ceremony at Anzac Cove. Picture: AP

Turkish officials were preparing further interrogation of Islamic State sympathiser Abdulkerim Hilef about an alleged Anzac Day terrorism plot, as Australian and New Zealand politicians reassured tourists they were safe.

Scott Morrison said in Townsville that his advice was that there was no link between the Gallipoli service and Hilef’s arrest.

The Prime Minister said it was a “routine arrest’’ and there were inconclusive reports about whether Hilef was planning to attack Gallipoli services.

Politicians in Turkey said there was no firm evidence that any terror plot was targeting the dawn service.

General Angus Campbell, chief of the Australian Defence Force, said the 1400 people who had made the pilgrimage to Anzac Cove would be secure throughout the peninsula as Turkish military continued a high-level presence.

Hilef, a 25-year-old Syrian ­national, was arrested in an anti-terrorism raid in Tekirdag, between Istanbul and Gallipoli, on the eve of the dawn service after police found mobile phone contacts of an Islamic State cell.

Last week, Turkish authorities arrested a senior Islamic State member and three members of a terror cell near the Turkish-Syrian border, believed to be linked to Hilef. Another suspect was ­arrested a week ago.

Turkish officials said they would hold Hilef for three days in Tekirdag and would then apply for further time to complete their ­investigations. Police in Tekirdag said Hilef was being investigated for planning a terrorist attack in retaliation for the Christchurch massacre, carried out by Australian Brenton Tarrant.

President Recep Erdogan last month linked Tarrant’s attacks with Australian tourists at Gallipoli, saying anyone with anti-Muslim sentiments who came to Turkey “would be sent back in coffins like their grandfathers were’’. He also vowed that if New Zealand failed to hold Tarrant accountable, “one way or another we will hold him to account’’.

Security at the dawn service was extraordinarily tight, with Turkish nationals banned from ­attending and repeated passport and vehicle checks undertaken every couple of hundred metres.

Syrian national Abdulkerem Hilef.

In the national park scrubland surrounding the beach commemoration site where 1434 Australians, New Zealanders and VIPs paid their respects to the Anzacs who landed 104 years ago, snipers in full camouflage gear monitored movements.

The single road in and out was closed until 2pm, effectively settling everyone on the peninsula for seven hours after the dawn service. Most Australians then trekked up the cliff face to attend the Lone Pine ceremony.

General Campbell said he had been confident the dawn service would go ahead, and was kept well-informed about the arrest.

“I am very comfortable, I am extraordinarily pleased with the arrangements and with the support we have received from the Turkish government and the Turkish military,’’ he said.

New Zealand’s Speaker of the house, Trevor Mallard, suggested the terrorist plot may not have been targeting the dawn service, and there was nothing he had been told that would have prompted him to raise a terror level.

He, too, raised doubts after the service that there had been a serious terrorist threat.

“There has been nothing given to me that would me cause any concern as to the safety of New Zealanders here,” he said.

Angus Campbell. Picture: Gary Ramage

“Someone is arrested 200km away, was spoken to by Turkish police, and the New Zealand authorities have told me there was nothing that indicated it was appropriate to lift the alert level here — if it was, in fact, a serious terror threat, which we do not yet know.”

General Campbell would not be drawn on whether the commemorations were a target.

“I can assure you this peninsula is very safe for Australians to be present and participate in these commemorations,’’ he said.

Additional reporting: Richard Ferguson