GOOD MORNING--TURKEY PRESS SCAN ON MAY 9

HURRIYET
-- ECONOMIC SHRINKAGE FALLS 3 POINTS
Turkish industry was shrinking since August but figures for March were only 2.9 points lower than February. Hopes emerged for recovery following lower rate of shrinkage after seven months. It caused comments such as, "economic fall has slowed down, shrinkage reached the deepest point." Turkish State Minister for foreign trade Zafer Caglayan said, "we saw the deepest point in the economic crisis."
         Â
-- TENDER FIASCO A LESSON FOR PRIVATIZATION
President of Turkey's Privatization Administration Metin Kilci talked about the national lottery tender which was cancelled on Thursday as bidders found the opening price of $1.6 billion too high. "No excuse can change the result," Kilci said. He said Turkey would renew the tender within this year, adding that they would take their lessons from the first tender. "10 year licence will not change but the second tender will be more competitive," he added.
       Â
MILLIYET
-- FREEDOM OF PRESS IS KEY TO EU
Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb was the first formal foreign visitor of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on ministerial level. Stubb said that one of the key elements for EU membership was freedom of press and expression. Stubb said, "the freer the press is, the better condition we are in."
       Â
-- GUL: THERE CAN BE GOOD DEVELOPMENTS IN KURDISH ISSUE
President Abdullah Gul told reporters during his return from Prague, "you call it whether terrorism or Southeastern issue or Kurdish issue; but this is Turkey's most important issue and it must be solved." He added that he believed good things would happen about this issue.
       Â
-- EIGHT GAMES AT THE SAME HOUR
Eight matches will start at the same time --7:00 p.m.-- in Turkcell Superleague today. Here are the matches;
Sivasspor v IBB
Ankaraspor v Besiktas
Kocaeli v Trabzonspor
Galatasaray v Ankaragucu
Fenerbahce v Denizlispor
Bursaspor v Konyaspor
G.Birligi v Hacettepe
Eskisehirspor v Antalyaspor
       Â
SABAH
-- WORLD'S EYE ON THIS MOSQUE
Inner decoration of Sakirin Mosque in Uskudar district of Istanbul --which was inaugurated with a ceremony yesterday-- was made by designer Zeynep Fadillioglu. Emine Erdogan, wife of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who attended the ceremony, congratulated Mrs. Fadillioglu, and said, "this art is the proof that there is no distance between women and mosque in Islam".
       Â
-- CASES COMBINED
Istanbul 13th High Criminal Court gave an opinion in line with the request of Court of Appeals, and combined Ergenekon case and the case on attack on Council of State.

VATAN
-- RACISM PLOT FOR TURKISH DIPLOMAT
Germany asked Turkey to summon her Consul-General in Dusseldorf after his remarks at a private gathering were distorted and leaked to media. Consul-General Hakan Kivanc had a dinner with representatives of migrants' associations. Two months after the dinner, one of the attendants asserted that Kivanc used racist expressions about German people. It was claimed that Kivanc said, "German officials would mark Turkish people with tattoos if they had chance." However, Kivanc denied these assertions. One of the other attendants of the dinner said, "someone set him up. He never used such expressions about German officials."
       Â
-- SIGNALS OF ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Industrial output that fell 5.3 percent in January, declined 4.4 percent in February and climbed 13.4 percent in March, which was an indicator of significant recovery in March over the previous two months of this year. Figures for April were not released yet but recovery is expected to speed up in April.
       Â
CUMHURIYET
-- HUGE BUDGET FOR VILLAGE GUARD SYSTEM
The annual cost of village guarding system --which has been on the center of debates after the murder of 44 people in the southeastern province of Mardin-- to economy is 600 million TL only when salaries are calculated. There are 71,907 village guards in Turkey. According to 2006 figures of Interior Ministry, one of three village guards commits crime.
       Â
-- NO JOB AND FOOD IN MARDIN
The southeastern province of Mardin --which is on the agenda of Turkey after the murder of 44 people-- is among the provinces where unemployment rate is highest in 2008. According to figures of Turkish Board of Statistics, the provinces --where unemployment rate was highest in 2008-- are Mardin, Batman, Sirnak and Siirt with 17.4 percent.
       Â
RADIKAL
-- STAGNATION SLOWS DOWN
Industrial production rate dropped 20.9 percent in March 2009 when compared to March 2008, however, there is a hope in the bad news: the decrease is slower than it was in the previous month.
       Â
-- SEVENTH PACKAGE IS VERY ASSERTIVE
The government is preparing an assertive package in Turkey where the unemployment rate reached 15.5 percent. The target in the seventh package against economic crisis is to provide employment directly to at least 500,000 people, and also give vocational training to 200,000 people.

YENI SAFAK
-- KURDISH ISSUE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT
Turkish President Abdullah Gul made important remarks at his return from the Czech Republic. He said Turkey's problem of top priority was terrorism. "Either you call it terrorism, or southeastern problem, or Kurdish issue. It is the most important problem of Turkey. It should be solved," Gul said. Reminding that he said "good things will happen" a while ago, Gul said, "new things should happen and will happen. There is a consensus among governmental units. Civilians, military, intelligence units, we all speak to each other frankly." Gul also said that there was chance now and it should not be missed.
       Â
-- VODAFONE EXCITED ABOUT 3G
Giant mobile phone operator Vodafone's chief executive officer Vittorio Colao said half of their turnover in Turkey would return as investments. He said Vodafone had global experience in 3G technology and added that they were looking forward to offering 3G services to Turkish subscribers.