Officials Seize 500 Kalashnikov Rifles

ANKARA - Turkish State Minister Kursad Tuzmen announced on Monday that 500 semiautomatic Kalashnikov rifles and a number of cartridge clips at Ambarli Customshouse in Istanbul.
Releasing a statement, Tuzmen said that those ammunitions were seized aboard a Maltese-flagged ship ``Varna`` which had departed from the Burgas port of Bulgaria.
``In an application to the Ambarli Customshouse on April 20, 2004, those rifles were declared as hunting rifles for sports and it was mentioned that those rifles would be brought to firstly Hamburg via Turkey and later to Paraguay. During their control, customs officials determined that those were semiautomatic war rifles. The Gendarmerie Command in Buyukcekmece district of Istanbul affirmed that those were AK.47 Kalashnikov war rifles,`` he said.
Tuzmen added that those rifles had been seized and handed over the Gendarmerie.
(MS-AY) 26.04.2004