TURKEY: SUSPECTED PLAN TO HIJACK FERRY THWARTED
Jerusalem Post
Feb 10 2007
Police detained two men Saturday on suspicions that they were planning
to hold up an Istanbul ferry to protest the fact that pro-Armenian
slogans had been chanted at a slain journalist’s funeral, police
said Saturday.
An Istanbul court ordered the two men released after questioning,
saying there was not enough evidence to charge them.
Acting on a tip, police detained the two men at the city’s entrance
Saturday, a police official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity
because of rules that bar civil servants from speaking to reporters
without prior authorization.
Police said the two men – from the eastern city of Igdir, near the
borders with Iran and Armenia – allegedly planned to hijack a ferry
sailing between the Asian and European shores of the Bosporous, copying
a ferry hijacking last month in the Dardanelles strait, police said.
That hijacker had threatened to blow the ferry up in protesting the
pro-American slogans. He had been carrying a gun, but no explosives,
and after about 2 hours surrendered to police. No passengers were
harmed.