GOOD MORNING--TURKEY PRESS SCAN ON DEC 1

HURRIYET
-- ERDOGAN: "CRISIS HAS STARTED TO DECLINE"
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan addressed the nation. "We think the economic crisis reached its peak level and now it has started to fall. However, impacts of this crisis would extend over a long time and it would take a time to recover," Erdogan said. "We have taken precautions to suffer least damage or even to turn the crisis into an opportunity for the country. It may not be suitable for everyone but what we are doing and our plans are based on a realistic timetable. We are about to complete the package of precautions," he said.

-- TRAVOLTA COMES TO SWEAT IN TURKISH BATH
Famous Hollywood actor John Travolta, who first gained fame with "Grease" in 1978 and starred in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, has come to Istanbul. The only reason for him to travel to Istanbul was to go to a Turkish bath.

MILLIYET
-- AKP'S MPS WANT IMAMS FOR THEIR ELECTORAL DISTRICTS
Justice and Development Party (AKP)'s MPs widely demanded that the imam shortage in their electoral districts be remedied, at their party's camp in Kizilcahamam which ended on Sunday. At the camp where AKP's Alevi move was also discussed, Said Yazicioglu, State Minister in Charge of Religious Affairs, said, "Wuch a problem exists whether you admit it or not." Premier Tayyip Erdogan discussed the economic crisis with senior officials of his party.

-- PERMISSION FOR CROSS BORDER OPERATION
Former Top Adviser to the Foreign Minister, Prof. Huseyin Pazarci of the Democratic Left Party (DSP) said Turkey did not need to take permission from Baghdad for cross-border operations. "Turkey will have the right to make cross-border operations as long as the conditions allow," said Pazarci.

SABAH
-- PM ERDOGAN POSTPONES ANNOUNCEMENT OF AKP CANDIDATES
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan postponed the announcement of AKP's candidates who will run for mayor's positions in Turkey at the local elections next year. Erdogan had previously said that he would make public the names of AKP candidates at the end of the current week. "We will announce the names of AKP candidates by Jan. 15, 2009," Erdogan said.

-- PM ERDOGAN CONDUCTS TELEPHONE DIPLOMACY OVER INDIA-PAKISTAN TENSION AFTER MUMBAI ATTACKS
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan held a round of telephone diplomacy in a bid to ease tension between India and Pakistan after a chain of deadly attacks which killed at least 174 people in Mumbai. Erdogan telephoned late on Saturday U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert, and British Premier Gordon Brown on Sunday to call for joint action to prevent tensions from escalating. In related news, Pakistani Premier Yousaf Raza Gilani telephoned Erdogan and conveyed to his Turkish counterpart concerns over the confrontation with India.

VATAN
-- ACCIDENT COMES OPENLY
The report on last year's crash of AtlasJet passenger plane in the southwestern province of Isparta has revealed that although pilots had warned about the failure in the EGPWS system 33 times, no one took the necessary measures. The system could have prevented the plane from colliding into a hill, saving the lives of 57 people.

-- FIRST SURVEY FOR LOCAL ELECTIONS
According to a public survey carried out by the Metropoll on Nov. 24-26, possible rate of vote is 28.5 percent for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), 12.7 percent for the Republican People's Party (CHP), and 7.2 percent for the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The rate of those who cannot make a decision yet or those who wait for the announcement of candidates to make a decision is 46.9 percent. Some 45.9 percent of participants thought that the AKP had lost its democratic and liberalistic stance.

CUMHURIYET
-- STILL TAKING CRISIS LIGHTLY
Premier Tayyip Erdogan, who earlier said that the effect of the economic crisis on Turkey would be minor, touched on the issue once more in his address to the nation. "Our estimation is that the crisis has reached its peak point and started declining," said Erdogan. Erdogan, who had said in India that he would announce the government's precautions package against the crisis upon his return to Turkey, avoided giving an exact date. He said that their preparations would soon be completed.

-- TURKEY WILL BE GRAVELY AFFECTED
Canadian economist David McNally said, "There will not even be a single sector left in Turkey unaffected by the crisis. But those sectors which are most dependent on foreign investments and exports will be affected the most." McNally, who argued that Turkey falsely believed that it was safe, said the IMF carried the crisis to Turkey.

RADIKAL
-- "CRISIS HAS STARTED TO FALL!"
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan made an optimistic comment on the economic crisis. This time, he said the economic crisis reached its peak and has now it started to decline.

-- TURKISH BAN ON YOUTUBE CAUSES RIFT IN GOOGLE ADMINISTRATION
The New York Times published a long article in its supplementary about the Turkish ban on YouTube. The newspaper wrote company discussions referring to insider information. According to the report, Google made an intensive search to comb out the insults to Ataturk by having all related video dialogues translated into English. The NYT said the Google law department also had heated arguments. Eventually, none of the formulas has been able to circumvent court decisions and YouTube remained banned in Turkey. "I remember one night, I was looking at 67 different Turkish videos at home," Nicole Wong, the deputy general counsel of Google, told the NYT.

YENI SAFAK
-- GUANTANAMO PERMISSION FOR INCIRLIK BASE
It was claimed that Turkey was one of the countries that the United States made a secret deal for "emergency landing" while transferring prisoners to Guantanamo. Spanish newspaper El Pais wrote that such an agreement was also made with several European countries including Spain and Italy.

-- IRAN HITS QANDIL
Iran's military shelled the Mount Qandil in the north of Iraq, which is used by the terrorist organization PKK as a base. A number of PKK terrorists were killed in the bombing. In a separate operation, Turkish soldiers surrounded a group of nearly 40 terrorists in the southeastern province of Hakkari.