GOOD MORNING--TURKEY PRESS SCAN ON JAN 15

HURRIYET
-- WHAT IS HAPPENING TODAY IS REMAINS OF THE PAST
Former prime minister Mesut Yilmaz said, "I was not bewildered at what we are seeing today. I experienced the incidents which bewildered me the most when I was the prime minister. What is happening today is the remains of the past." Yilmaz said that there was a huge corruption in the National Intelligence Organization (MIT). Yilmaz said, "an illegal fight against terrorism was staged in Turkey in the past. I did not find any documents that indicated a similarity between the Susurluk case and gladio." Yilmaz said, "the Special Operations Department played an important role in eliminating terrorism when Tansu Ciller was the prime minister. But some moves were not legal. A small part of those people became the actors of the Susurluk disgrace. The government of those days protected them."Â

"As the main opposition leader, I conveyed the information that reached me to Suleyman Demirel, then president. Demirel wrote a letter to then prime minister but Necmettin Erbakan did not deal with the issue as much as he should have," he said. Yilmaz also said, "if an attack against the state is in question and it cannot be prevented through diplomatic means, the state has the right to stage concealed operations. Turkey uses this right when necessary."
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-- SUPER AGENT CONFUSES MINDS AGAIN
Tuncay Guney, a suspect of the Ergenekon case, was again on TV with his testimony said to be taken in 2001. This testimony caused discussions again. Two lawyers claimed that Guney said "2005" when he was talking about a statue disagreement with Veli Kucuk. Lawyer Mehmet Cengiz said that the same incident was mentioned in the 69th page of the mentioned testimony which was typed and submitted to the court trying Ergenekon suspects. Cengiz said, "we have a serious doubt that Guney was also interviewed in 2005 and brought to Turkey when he was wanted as a person arrested in his absent.
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MILLIYET
-- TURKISH PREMIER GREENLIGHTS PROBE INTO INTELLIGENCE CHIEF OVER SLAIN JOURNALIST
Premier Tayyip Erdogan cleared inspectors to launch an investigation into a police intelligence chief over his alleged negligence in the killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. Erdogan approved last December the probe into Ramazan Akyurek on the request by a report of the Prime Ministry Inspection Board. The report says Akyurek was the police chief in the Black Sea province o Trabzon in 2004 when the police department moved to recruit Erhan Tuncel, the alleged mastermind of the Dink's assassination, as an auxiliary intelligence gatherer. The report added that Tuncel was used by Akyurek while in office in Trabzon as the police chief as well as the intelligence head. Dink was shot dead outside the offices of weekly Agos newspaper in Istanbul in January 2007.
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-- FORMULA 1: QUITING TURKEY?
Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, who also runs Turkey's Formula One circuit, the Istanbul Park, has been reported to have appealed to withdraw from Turkey and to rescind his 15-year lease deal for the Turkey circuit. It is not clear whether Ecclestone is planning to quit Turkey right away or he appealed in order to meet a condition for notification in three-years advance.
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SABAH
-- DEATH SKETCHES
Sketches and plans found in the apartment of former Special Forces head Ibrahim Sahin include details of bloody attacks which could lead Turkey to a chaos. The documents found in house of Ibrahim Sahin, who was arrested on charges of being founder and head of Ergenekon terrorist organization show that it aimed to create dreadful atmosphere in Turkey till local elections.
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-- SK GROUP READY FOR NUCLEAR POWER PLANT IN TURKEY
South Korea's energy, construction and telecommunication giant SK Group plans to invest in the sectors of energy and transportation in Turkey. SK Group Vice President Seok Jae Seo said that if a new tender was held in Turkey for nuclear power plant, they would join it.

VATAN
-- DONMEZ WON'T FACE PROSECUTOR OZ
The arrest of Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Donmez --who ran away after learning that he was wanted under the Ergenekon probe-- by a military court before facing Prosecutor Zekeriya Oz, created a rather interesting jural outcome. Prosecutor Oz will only be able to take statement of Donmez indirectly with a mandate via the military prosecutor. The lieutenant colonel was arrested by a military court under charges of stealing the ammunition, which was seized in a mountain house in Sapanca, and the ones recovered from underground in Yenikent, Ankara.

-- FORMULA ONE FINISHED US
Murat Yalcintas, chairman of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce --one of the largest vocational institutions of the world with its 300,000 members-- , announced that they could only provide 30 million TL of credit to chamber's members via HalkBank. "In fact, we wanted to provide a larger package of loan. But we couldn't do it because of the amount we invested in Formula 1," said Yalcintas. Earlier Yalcintas had said the F1 costed them $280 million and their loss was in millions with double digits.
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CUMHURIYET
-- TOUGH DECLERATION FROM MEMBERS TO YOK
Five opposing members of the Higher Board of Education (YOK) issued a declaration, saying that the appointment of YOK members and rectors from among scholars close to Justice and Development Party (AKP) --or scholars who signed the communique supporting freedom of wearing headscarves at universities-- was a source of concern. YOK members warned that, the pro-AKP approach, distanced the board from its constitutional role. The members said the nature of the relation between the board and the government became evident with the mandate YOK chairman sent to universities --without consulting the board-- ordering them to allow wearing of headscarves, or with the comments made by officials of the Health Ministry and National Education Ministry, on issues within the mandate of YOK.
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-- BAR OF ISTANBUL REGARDS EXCAVATIONS, AN ATTEMPT OF ACQUITTANCE
Chairman of the Bar of Istanbul said the confidentiality principle had been violated since the beginning of Ergenekon probe. "For those who carry out the Ergenekon probe, the recent excavations made before the eyes of the world, is an attempt to acquit themselves and make the 70 million people in Turkey witness to the probe. This is a message saying, 'do not judge us, look we have found the weapons'," said the bar chairman.

RADIKAL
-- TESTIMONY SHAKING COUNTRY LIKE A COFFEE CHAT
Tuncay Guney, known as the "black box of the Ergenekon case", was testified in the Organized Crime Department in 2001. The footage was distributed to lawyers under the ongoing Ergenekon case by the Istanbul Criminal Court on Wednesday. Every one was earlier familiar with the testimony in its written shape, but the footage was broadcast on TV channels on Wednesday afternoon. The images did not confirm Guney, who said, "I was tortured for nine days when I was testifying." Guney gives long answers to questions that have been shaking Turkey in the Ergenekon investigation, puts his hand on the table, stands up and makes descriptions, and drinks water from time to time. Police chief Adil Serdar Sacan and his colleagues, who interrogated Tuncay Guney, argued that they did not torture Guney. One police officer said, "he even looked he had been sent to us just to speak." Lawyers of Ergenekon suspects say Guney is lying in the four CD recordings for about 130 minutes, and the copies given to them were "incomplete."
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-- LIEUTENANT COLONEL DONMEZ REMAINING SILENT
Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Donmez was wanted within the scope of the tenth wave of the Ergenekon investigation, he turned himself in the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and was arrested for "taking military equipment out of headquarters" when arms and ammunition were found in his house and in a field. Donmez used his right to remain silent. Ergenekon case's prosecutor Zekeriya Oz can testify Donmez either by going to the Mamak military prison or by asking some one to testify him.

YENI SAFAK
-- TUNCAY GUNEY GOES PUBLIC
The testimony that Tuncay Guney, who collapsed the Ergenekon terrorist organization, gave to police in 2001 shocked every one. The 130-minute interrogation footage was broadcast on TV channels. Guney says, "Ergenekon is a group organized by the United States, and it is getting support from some circles outside the state, it is not right or left. The name of General Veli Kucuk's group is Ergenekon and the entire military-civilian junta is called Ergenekon. Ergenekon is receiving financial source from not only the state, but also the banks, businessmen and mafia." Guney also says, "the core members are Hakki Karadayi, Necip Torumtay, Teoman Koman, Rasim Betir, Nejat Muldur and Guven Erkaya. I do not know the hierarchic roles of the 12-member core staff. Tansu Ciller (a former prime minister) wanted to meet Veli Kucuk, but Kucuk did not want it. Guney said that Labor Party leader Dogu Perincek was the man of the terrorist organization PKK in Turkish Gladio.
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-- UZAN'S VILLA TO BE SOLD FOR 40 MILLION LIRAS
Ahmet Afif Pasha mansion, that could not be sold before, will again be auctioned. The Turkish Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) seized the mansion that belonged to the Uzan family for their Imar Bankasi debts. The fund set the estimated value of the villa on the shores of the Istanbul Strait as 40 million Turkish liras (TL). (One USD is 1.615 TL). The auction will be held on January
 28.