Police in 2:1 ratio for Tartan Army at Turkey friendly in Kurdish stronghold

TURKISH fans bought up over 30,000 tickets to see their country play Scotland next week in less than an hour as excitement grows for the first-ever international match in Diyarbakır.

And they have revealed they will assign 200 police officers to monitor the Tartan Army – which is expected to work out at one for every two Scotland fans.

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Scotland will face Turkey for the first time in 62 years next week in a groundbreaking friendly in the Kurdish stronghold of Diyarbakır.

Although the SFA were allocated 1,250 tickets at just £2 per brief, only around 400 Scotland fans are expected to travel to the southern outpost.

The match has generated huge interest in Diyarbakir, with the 30,000 home tickets for the game snapped up in under an hour after being put on an online sale.

And tourist chiefs have reported that every hotel room in the city has been reserved for the historic game.

Now Diyarbakır’s Provincial Police Department chief Fatih Kaya has announced that 200 specialist English-speaking police officers will be deployed to assist with the influx of Scotland fans to the city.

They will reportedly accompany and assist the Tartan Army during their time in the city and will deploy three separate security checkpoints before entry to the ground.

The Diyarbakir Stadium has also been extensively upgraded with 9,500 broken seats replaced ahead of the game next Wednesday.

Meanwhile Ange Postecoglou has defended his decision to not release his Celtic players for the upcoming international break.

Steve Clarke’s Scotland have a friendly against Turkey next week and no Scotland players have been selected as they will be travelling with Postecoglou to Australia for their mid-season break instead.

The Hoops have been invited to the four-team Sydney Super Cup tournament alongside Everton, Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers as the Celtic boss makes his homecoming tour.

Celtic are allowed to prevent players from going on international duty as there’s not a designated international window coming up.

Clarke admitted he was left “disappointed” at the fact he couldn’t give Greg Taylor, Anthony Ralston or David Turnbull a call-up for their match against Turkey.

But Postecoglou insists the Scotland boss must move on from the restriction as the trip down under was planned for some time.

He told BBC Scotland: “Steve’s got every right to be disappointed, he’s the national team manager. I’ve been there and I’ve been disappointed.

“As a club manager sometimes we’re disappointed when players go away with national teams and get injured or don’t play.

“We all get over our disappointment pretty quickly.

“I’ve no issue with Steve. I wish him all the best but, for us, this has been in our planning for quite a while. We’ve got guys away going to the World Cup as well so it’s not just Scotland that we’ve kept the guys from.

“We think this tour is important for us, important for our supporters, it’s important for our club and that’s why we’ve taken the decision.”

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