Travellers making the annual trek to Gallipoli for Anzac Day are being warned that authorities have "received information" to indicate terrorists want to launch an attack on the commemoration.
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But the Australian Federal Police have said that the information does not relate to a specific plot and the overall travel warning for Turkey and the Gallipoli Peninsula in particular has not changed.
Veterans Affairs Minister Dan Tehan, in an announcement being co-ordinated with the New Zealand government, refused to go into detail about the new intelligence, saying only that the government had "received information to suggest that terrorists may seek to target Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula".
"The commemorations are scheduled to continue as planned … Ultimately it is up to the traveller to make the final decision on whether to travel or not," he said.
However, terrorism expert Greg Barton from Deakin University said he would not go to Turkey this month, given the overall level of danger in the country.
Turkey has, for about a year, been subject to a strong travel caution by the Department of Foreign Affairs, with Australians urged to reconsider their need to travel to popular tourist city Istanbul and capital Ankara and to "exercise a high degree of caution" in Gallipoli and Turkey overall. The level of these warnings is not changing as a result of the latest information.
Turkey has suffered a series of terrorist attacks, including the New Year's Istanbul nightclub massacre – which was claimed by the so-called Islamic State – as well as an attempted coup last year that led to a crackdown by the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
AFP deputy commissioner for national security Mike Phelan said the information was "nothing specific, just that terrorists may indeed try to carry out a terrorist attack during the celebrations and that's all we've got at this stage".
"If it was any higher than that, then the advisory would go higher."
He said that authorities "always err on the side of caution when it comes to Australian lives".
"In terms of the ceremony, it is about just showing a high degree of caution while there. That's just standard security practice," Mr Phelan said.
Mr Tehan did not say what additional security measures the Turkish government was taking, but he said Australia was "confident Turkey will make every effort to mitigate the threat".
Turkey is responsible for security at the site but Australian authorities liaise closely with them, he said. Security had been high the past two years given the 2015 centenary commemoration.
Professor Barton said that "several thousand" Islamic State members were in Turkey "with a degree of impunity" given the complicated relations in the region around the Syrian civil war and neighbouring countries.
He said that President Erdogan's political purge following last year's coup attempt had "gutted" the security services, raising the danger of terrorist attacks. This was a factor the Australian government might be considering, he said.
"If somebody was asking me for advice, I would say going to Turkey is just too dangerous," he said.
