GOOD MORNING--TURKEY PRESS SCAN ON AUGUST 25

These are some of the major headlines and their summaries in the Turkish press on August 25, 2008. Hurriyet English does not verify these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. (UPDATED)

HURRIYET

-- ONE TURKISH CIZITEN DIES IN PLANE CRASH

Itek Air's Boeing 737 took off from Kyrgyztan's capital Bishkek with 90 passengers on board and crashed in a few minutes. The plane was bound for Tehran. 65 passengers, one of whom was a Turkish citizen, died in the accident. 22 people injured, three were missing. There were 14 Chinese, Canadian and Iranian people on board.

-- LEFT HOPEFUL, RETURNED DISAPPOINTED

Turkey competed in Beijing Olympics with 68 athletes, the greatest number of athletes and sports branches in Turkey's history. However, Turkish athletes won the least number of gold medals since 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. Elvan Abeylegesse has become the first athlete to win 2 medals in an Olympic Games for Turkey.


MILLIYET

-- REHN'S CALL FOR COMPROMISE

EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn has said that he expected Turkey to revive its reform process. In an article he wrote for the Milliyet daily, Rehn said that repeated crises exhausted Turkey's energy for reforms. Rehn said that the crisis of the closure case against the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) revealed Turkey's urgent need for judicial and constitutional reforms.

-- "CONSENSUS IS ESSENTIAL"

Professor Andrew Arato, one of the leading authorities in the world in the area of constitutional amendment, has indicated that the Constitutional Court's verdicts about headscarf and closure defined the government's moves. Arato said that consensus was essential for constitutional amendment, adding that Turkey needed to maintain modernizing its democracy.


SABAH

-- EVEN STREET SPRINKLER BURNT DOWN

The forest fire near the village of Ozluce in the southwestern province of Mugla has destroyed some 150 hectares of wooded area. Even a street sprinkler truck was burnt down to ashes in the fire. Five personnel in the truck escaped the flames the last moment.

-- CONFESSIONS FROM JITEM INFORMER

Abdulkadir Aygan of the gendarmerie intelligence unit (JITEM) has said that the C-4 explosive used in the assassination of journalist Ugur Mumcu was given by Cem Ersever, one of commanders of the unit. Aygan, who has been living in Sweden, said that Ersever was killed by the hit-man known with his code name Yesil.

VATAN

-- NO WATER FOR ACTIVISTS

Police detained 33 environmentalists, 30 of whom were foreigners, as they staged a protest in front of the Governor's Office in the northern Black Sea city of Sinop. They were fined 125 YTL and then released. Activists claimed that police did not give them food and water at the police station as they asked for their lawyers.

-- BANNED DOCUMENTARY AT PRESIDENTIAL WEBSITE

The documentary film "Ankara, the Heart of Turkey", shot by Russian director Sergei Yutkovic in 1934 after a request by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and banned in 1969, can now be seen in president's internet site. The documentary was banned in charges that it was making a communist propaganda. Mahmut Tali Ongoren, who was the director of Turkish state-run TV TRT, was dismissed since he allowed the broadcast of the film.


CUMHURIYET

-- WORKS BY ORIENTALIST BRITISH PAINTERS TO BE EXHIBITED IN ISTANBUL

Works by the orientalist British painters lived between 17th and 20th centuries will be exhibited in Istanbul's Pera Museum on September 23. The exhibition composed of nearly 110 works will remain open till October 4.

-- 150 HECTARES OF WOODED AREA DESTROYED

The forest fire has destroyed some 150 hectares of wooded area in the southwestern province of Mugla. A number of forestry workers were injured and two water trucks sustained heavy damage in the forest fire.


RADIKAL

-- RECORDS KEPT EVEN FOR MILITARY OFFICIALS

The Ergenekon probe has revealed that records were kept for a number of people by the military. Police found documents and CDs in the house of Fikret Emek, who retired from the Special Forces Command in 2004 and was detained under the Ergenekon probe. There were details about private lives and personal characteristics of some military personnel in the documents. Some of them were described as "alcoholic", "depraved".

-- SABANCI IN METROPOLIS

The Sabanci Foundation has decided to support the archaeological excavations in the ancient city of Metropolis financially. Excavations in the ancient city in the western province of Izmir has been continuing since 1992.


-- AN UNDERGROUND ASSET

Turkey is one of the richest countries in the world in regard to its underground reserves. Turkey's complicated geological structure enabled presence of different kinds of mines.

YENI SAFAK

-- TASTER FOR JITEM'S COLONEL

Special precautions were taken to protect Arif Dogan, the founder of gendarmerie intelligence (JITEM) and the witness who knows everything. Dogan, who has a medical report that he is not allowed to travel, is safeguarded by the gendarmerie. His food is tasted before he eats in order to prevent poisoning.

-- 77 VARIETIES OF MINES IN TURKEY

Turkey is home to rich resources for 77 types of mines out of 90 traded globally. Turkey, which ranks the second in the world in terms of gold mine, has the 72 percent of boron beds. Other mines extracted are zinc, lead, iron, chrome, aluminum and copper.