The recent presidency council meeting of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey resolved that extraordinary security measures should be taken in the assembly. Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu on Tuesday informed the Assembly on security measures.
The decision came after an Islamic State (IS) jihadist had conducted reconnaissance for possible attacks on the Turkish parliament. The building was bombarded by jets during last year's coup attempt.
Ruling AKP party deputy Salim Uslu said that taking extraordinary security measures in the assembly was one of the resolutions. He explained that preparing a draft for changing the security resolutions has been discussed in the meeting.
Speaking after the meeting, Uslu stated that many measures had been taken so far for the Turkish parliament building: "monitoring systems have been renewed; there is a stable police dog, and armoured police booths were built in front of the entrance doors, car check-ins have been limited." Underlining that the entrance to the main building has been strictly limited and visitors would be monitored more intensely, he said that "if we deem necessary, we will raise the walls around the campus."
'ANTI DRONE' SYSTEM
Uslu also said that the shelters had been renewed and an 'anti drone' system was installed on the roof. "This system is a signal jammer, and the experiments have been successful", he added.
At the entrance doors where there were 'under vehicle search system' previously, there will be license plate identification system. "The system will automatically recognize the plates of vehicles entering the building so that the barrier will lift and the vehicle will come in," he explained.
EMERGENCY CENTER WITH 156 PERSONNEL
Salim Uslu explained that they had formed an Emergency Center consisting of 156 personnel, some of which will work in shifts and some will come when needed.
Another emergency measure, according to Uslu, will be taken about the different entry mechanisms in different buildings. While the doors of the main building need keys, the doors of the building for public relations have security codes. Explaining that it was decided before that the doors of the main building will not be changed in order not to change its authenticity, Uslu stated that in the meeting, it had been discussed that under whose responsibility the keys will be.
The resolution to the issue, according to Uslu, will be that the police will hold these keys but they will not be able to open the doors and enter the building. "The officers will only be responsible for the security of the keys. The boards where they keys will be kept will be monitored by security cameras, so we will be able to monitor who take the keys".
