Istanbul police

Police on Jan. 3 detained two foreigners suspected of having links to the deadly terror attack in the Reina nightclub which killed 39 people on Jan. 1. 

The two suspects were stopped at a checkpoint in Istanbul Atatürk Airport's international terminal before being taken to the airport's police station.

Turkey detained a staff journalist for The Wall Street Journal for almost three days without access to a lawyer, the newspaper reported on Dec. 31, adding to growing concerns over press freedom in the country.

Istanbul police have detained 45 people in an operation against two suspected mafia organizations after collecting information that the two gangs were on the eve of major clashes. 

Various kinds of drugs worth 12 million Turkish Liras were seized in an operation on a house in the Eyüp district of Istanbul on Dec. 15. 

Eleven suspects were detained on Dec. 19 in Istanbul-based operations targeting alleged members of the Fethullah Terror Organization (FETÖ), headed by the U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen. 

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım will meet with opposition party leaders on Dec. 14 to discuss the terrorist attack in Istanbul's Beşiktaş district over the weekend, which killed 44 people and wounded over hundred. 

The explosives used in the deadly Dec. 10 Beşiktaş terror attack "are not ordinary ammunition," Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş said after a cabinet meeting on Dec. 12.

A thorough investigation to identify the source of the explosives is still being conducted, he added.    

A funeral was held at Istanbul police headquarters on Vatan Avenue in Fatih for five police officers who were killed in twin bombings in Istanbul late on Dec. 10.

Third-degree police chief Vefa Karakurdu, police chief Kadir Yıldırım and police officers Adem Oğuz, İlker Uylaş and Hasan Bilgin were laid to rest.

Istanbul police detained two suspects of Nigerian origin who were trying to smuggle drugs in condoms that they later swallowed in Istanbul's Atatürk International Airport on Nov. 11, Doğan News Agency has reported.

Police detained Cumhuriyet Foundation Executive Board President Akın Atalay on Nov. 11 at Istanbul's Atatürk Airport after he landed from Germany, as a part of the investigation into columnists and executives at Turkish daily Cumhuriyet.