GOOD MORNING--TURKEY PRESS SCAN ON MAY 4

HURRIYET

--TERRORIST HEADS POSSIBLY AMONG THOSE KILLED IN THE RAID ON MOUNT QANDIL

Intelligence sources have suggested that PKK's terrorist heads might be among those hit during the Turkish military's air operation on Mount Qandil, some 100 kms (62 miles) inside Iraq's northern border, where some 150 terrorists were killed by the heavy bombardment. Sources believe that Murat Karayilan, one of the heads of the terrorist organization, also might have been killed during the operation.

--GOVERNMENT REVISES PRIMARY SURPLUS DOWN TO 3.5%

The Turkish government revised its primary surplus target for 2008 down to 3.5 percent, 3 points lower than an earlier projection of an economic program unveiled after the economic crisis in 2001. Economic analysts have said the revision meant a loosening in the financial discipline. Turkish State Minister for the Treasury Mehmet Simsek said however, "Any loosening of the financial discipline is out of question."

 

MILLIYET

--"LOCAL ELECTION INVESTMENT" BY RULING AKP

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government dropped the public sector primary surplus target from 4.2 percent to 3.5 percent for 2008.
 
The government aims at using the source which will be created by this reduction in the primary surplus target for Southeast Anatolia Project (GAP), the employment package and local administrations. Economy experts consider this initiative an AKP "local election investment."

GREAT PANIC IN PKK

The Turkish General Staff announced that more than 150 PKK terrorists, including top organization members, were killed in the operation to the Qandil region in the north of Iraq on May 1-2. It said the operation led to panic among the terrorists.

 

SABAH

--MAJOR BLOW TO PKK

More than 150 terrorists were killed in the Qandil region in the north of Iraq. Turkish General Staff announced the outcome of the air operation conducted on May 1 in the north of Iraq. A statement released by the General Staff said the operation led to panic among members of terrorist organization and heads of the terrorist organization might have been killed in the operation.

--DOGUS HOLDING: "WE DON'T EXPECT AN ECONOMIC CRISIS"

Ferit Sahenk, chairman of executive board of Dogus Holding, said they did not expect an economic crisis in the country. Sahenk said that as long as the remarkable transformation and achievements continued, Turkey would continue advancing on its way with sound steps.

 

VATAN

--JURISTOCRACY AND TAUTOLOGY

The ruling AKP has opened two concepts to discussion in its defensive argument in the closure case: Juristocracy and tautology.

The AKP argument says that the indictment is "a political manifesto." "The judiciary cannot be used as an instrument of political opposition otherwise it becomes political. This would turn the democratic regime into a juristocracy, which is the rule of the judges," the AKP said. "The indictment is a monument of tautology, a repeated sum of the same arguments. The indictment is devoid of any legal or political legitimacy."

--ANOTHER POLICE STATE RAID

Prof. Gencay Gursoy, chairman of the Turkish Doctors' Union (TTB), was briefly taken into custody at 5:00 a.m. (02:00 GMT) on Saturday at a hotel in the Turkish capital, Ankara. Gursoy appeared before a court charged with "having failed to notify the prosecutor's office" that he had resigned from a journal of which he was the editor-in-chief many years ago.

Gursoy filed a criminal complaint on Friday after police threw tear gas into a hospital emergency department during scuffles at the May Day demonstrations in Istanbul.

 

CUMHURIYET

--EU ATTACHES IMPORTANCE TO TURKEY

Lithuania's Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas said the EU attached great importance to Turkey and if Turkey became a full member of the EU, the Union could expand into Eurasia. Kirkilas said they were determined to support the Nabucco Project.

--PREPARATION FOR CENSURE MOTION

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) chairman, Deniz Baykal said the government was responsible for the incidents that took place on May Day, not the unions. Baykal said they had discussed a censure motion against interior minister or prime minister.

 

RADIKAL

--CUSTODY AT EARLY MORNING

The police detained Gencay Gursoy, chairman of the Turkish Doctors' Union, at 5 a.m. (02:00 GMT) at a hotel in Ankara. Later Gursoy was released by the court. The Doctors' Chambers and some other nongovernmental organizations condemned police actions during Turkey’s May Day celebrations.

--NEW TARGET AT PRIMARY SURPLUS: 3.5 PERCENT

The government revised the public sector primary surplus target, which was earlier set as 4.2 percent for 2008, to 3.5 percent. Speaking at a press briefing in Ankara about the medium-term financial frame for the period between 2008 and 2012, Finance Minister Kemal Unakitan said a revision took place in the national income calculation and the medium term global economic and financial outlook has been changed.

The public sector primary surplus target was set as 3 percent for 2009, 2.7 percent for 2010, 2.5 percent for 2011 and 2.4 percent for 2012, Unakitan said.

YENI SAFAK

 

--DOGUS HOLDING: "WE DON'T EXPECT AN ECONOMIC CRISIS"

 

Ferit Sahenk, chairman of executive board of Dogus Holding, said they did not expect an economic crisis in Turkey.

 

"Everyone has been working hand in hand in the world. The situation in international financial markets has been getting better. We don't expect an economic crisis in Turkey," Sahenk said.

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--HIGH IRON PRICE TO PULL DOWN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

 

Necip Nasir from the Izmir Chamber of Trade said the increase in iron prices had driven construction companies to go bankruptcy. Nasir said a quota must be implemented in the exports of iron.