Crime and Punishment With a Twist

(Haberturk Newspaper, 26 January 2011)

The penalties connected with supervised release can sometimes
be funny and other time thought-provoking. The penalty given to
Ankara's C.Ç. is one of these. C.Ç. showed up late when reporting
for military duty and was listed as a deserter so he received a four
month jail sentence. The court, however, took note of C.Ç.'s 'good
behavior' and changed the sentence to supervised release. In this
light, upon his discharge from the army, C.Ç. was ordered not to
play his favorite game 'okey' with his friends at the tea house for
three months.

In the context of supervised release, wife-beaters, disturbers of
the peace, police insulters and the like are sentenced to attend a
ten-part anger-management seminar instead of serving jail time.
Social services expert Şerife Etleç of the Ankara Supervised
Release Directorate gave some examples of the supervised
release program, as follows:

-- B.Y. was beaten by her husband during an argument in
Sakarya and filed a complaint. The court ordered her husband
A.Y. to see a family therapist one day each week.

-- Ramazan U. punched his wife and was ordered by the court
to wear a sign reading 'I apologize to my wife' whenever he goes
to the tea house, the mosque, school or the market.

-- similarly, in Kastamonu, wife-beater Mustafa K. was told to
print 1,000 signs reading 'I apologize to my wife and all of Araç
district for beating my wife' and distribute the signs throughout
the district.

-- in Diyarbakır, H.Ç. had to bring his wife flowers for five months.

-- Z.B., who beat his 10 year-old daughter because she didn't do
her homework, was sentenced by the Midyat, Mardin, court to
plant saplings for five months. Z.B. was able to plant 500 saplings
in the course of serving his sentence.

Whoops! Snow Ambulance Stranded

(Haberturk Newspaper, 28 January 2011)

In Rize, a transport vehicle for snow ambulances costing 100,000
Euros has been found to be unuseable because, when the ambulance
is loaded on, the combined height exceeds the limit for tunnels and
overpasses.  The Health Ministry sent the snow ambulance to Rize
last year for use in emergency situations when roads are otherwise
impassable due to snowfall. But the ambulance can only operate on
snow and must be transported to the affected area by the transport
vehicle, whose height was apparently incorrectly calculated.

The transport vehicle has a height of 1 meter 40 centimeters and
together with the snow ambulance, which rises to a height of three
meters 30 centimeters, their combined height is 4 meters 70 centi-
meters. Both vehicles are now stranded in the garage in Rize since
the height of tunnels and overpasses is 4 meters 50 centimeters.

Rize Provincial Health Director Mustafa Tepe summarized the
situation, saying 'after the incident in Ovit the Ministry sent us the
snow ambulance and last year we were able to help 19 citizens
thanks to this ambulance. But the vehicle cannot traverse concrete
and dirt roads so we requested a transporter that would be low
to the ground. Nevertheless, although we reiterated this require-
ment a number of times they sent us a Mercedes transporter which
is too long and too high for the tunnels and overpasses.'

In his own defense, Rize Provincial Procurement Deputy Secretary
Salih Kurtuluş stated that they purchases the transporter based on
health officials' request. He added that 'the ambulance's height is
supposed to be 2 meters 90 centimeters and the transporter is
one meter 30 centimeters from the ground, making a total height
of 4 meters 20 centimeters. We wouldn't make such a mistake.'

Seeds of Distrust Sown in Village

(Haberturk Newspaper, 28 January 2011)

The headman of Akpınar village in Sungurlu district of Çorum
province, Cengiz Yetişoğlu, allegedly became angry when some
people began to sow seeds on his uncle's land without permission.
So Yetiloğlu went to the town's mosque, grabbed the microphone
and cursed out the offending trespassers, according to some
villagers.

Those within earshot informed the Gendarmerie, district chief
and the public prosecutor and filed a complaint against Yetişoğlu.
Rejecting the complaint, though, Yetişoğlu alleged that 'they're
trying to run me down. These slanders arise because of jealousy
in the village. Certain opportunists put forth baseless claims like
these, wanting to take the seal from my hands. Their biggest
concern is not me, it's the village seal.'

District chief Hulusi Şahin, however, stated that 'both my office
and the prosecutor's office have received complaints alleging
that such an incident took place in Akpınar village but the
interesting thing is that some people say 'the headman was
cursing from the mosque loudspeakers', whereas most people
say that 'no, our headman did no such thing.'  We are continuing
the investigation.'

Russian Lover, Criminal Cousins

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 27 January 2011)

Ali K. (28) returned to Turkey after working in Turkmenistan as
an accountant and then invited his Russian girlfriend Yelena I. to
come to his house in Adana. Yelena, however, didn't have any
money for such a trip so she asked Ali K. for 2,000 dollars.

Not having the money for Yelena, Ali K., who was on the verge
of divorcing his wife who lives in Fethiye, joined up with his cousin
Ismail K. (26) to rob an all-night pharmacy at 2 AM on 15 January.
The two wore ski masks and used a fake gun during the robbery,
taking away 6,000 Turkish Lira and four cellphones belonging to
the pharmacist and his employees.

Ali K. used a portion of the haul to pay for Yelena's trip but when
the rest of the money ran out the two cousins planned a second
caper. They hit a gas station and took 1,600 Turkish Lira from
the four attendants, who then informed the police. Ali K. and
Ismail K. were captured soon afterwards.

The two cousins confessed to the two robberies with Ali K. ex-
plaining to police that he had done it to pay for his Russian girl-
friend's trip to Turkey. While Ali K. expressed regret for his
actions, Ismail K. said that like his cousin he was about to
divorce his wife and just needed some money.

Beware of Seatmates Bearing Gifts

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 27 January 2011)

Kadir Aslan (37) boarded a bus in Malatya for a trip to his home-
town in Gaziantep. Sitting next to Aslan on the bus was Turan Öğüt
(56) who offered Aslan some sweets and nuts. After eating the
food Aslan fell asleep and didn't wake up when the bus stopped
in Adıyaman for a break.

The bus hostess, failing to revive Aslan, noticed that Öğüt was trying
to quietly slip away so she alerted the police. Now awake, Aslan
told police that 7,000 Turkish Lira had been stolen from his pocket.
Police then nabbed Öğüt who had the doctored sweets and the
stolen money on his person. Öğüt was arrested and taken to jail.

Triangle and Nine Kids

(Sözcü Newspaper, 25 January 2011)

Sonya Sağlam (28) of Silvan district of Diyarbakır province was
living with her husband Müfit Gür (37) and Gür's 'kuma' (spare
wife), Mülkiye Gür (25), when Sağlam was seriously injured by
coming in contact with a high-tension wire while cleaning their
house's roof seven months ago.

Only 16 days after giving birth to her fifth child, Semanur, Sağlam
found herself on life-support at the local hospital. Now, her
husband's 'kuma' is looking after Semanur, along with Sağlam's
four other children and four of her own, all fathered by Müfit Gür.

Ten years ago, Müfit Gür fell in love with Mülkiye and he and Sonya
asked Mülkiye's family to let Mülikye come and live with them. The
family refused so Müfit and Sonra kidnapped Mülkiye, who then
'married' Gür with Sonya at their side during the 'wedding'.

Elusive Treasure in Bursa

(Haberturk Newspaper, 26 January 2011)

Rumors about buried treasure in Inegöl district of Bursa province
lead a group to rent a backhoe and commence to dig. After two
days of excavating a 2.5 meter-deep, 12 meter-wide trench,
though, the treasure hunters have so far been left empty-handed.

Construction engineer Turgut Dede and his friends had heard
rumors about Greeks and Armenians, along with Greek soldiers,
having buried gold and jewelry as they abandoned the town of
Cerrah following the Turkish liberation of the Inegöl area in the
early 1920's.

Dede's group obtained the requisite permission from the local
district chief in order to start digging near a by-pass road the
day before yesterday. The Gendarmerie was on hand to observe
the activity, as well.  But despite paying 5,000 Turkish Lira to
rent the backhoe, none of the expected 100 to 300 kilograms of
treasure could be located.