These are some of the major headlines and their brief stories in Turkey's press on February 8, 2002. The Anadolu Agency does not verify these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

HURRIYET (LIBERAL)
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''I DISMISSED 400 POLICEMEN WHO TOOK BRIBE''
Interior Minister Rustu Kazim Yucelen asked for the carrying out of a survey on corruption in the organizations under his responsibility. The survey carried out among the people indicated that the people were giving bribes. Yucelen set up special civil bribery teams throughout Turkey to capture policemen who takes bribes red-handed. Thus, these policemen were captured. Yucelen said, ''I dismissed 400 policement in the last three months.''

SUMMARY OF LETTER SENT TO ECEVIT
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein sent a jet response to the letter of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit in which he noted that ''U.S. President George Bush was serious.'' Iraqi President said that if Ankara wanted to show its sincerety about Iraq's territorial integrity, it should stop Northern Wath flights from Incirlik Air Base.

MILLIYET (LIBERAL)
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U.S. DOLLAR INCREASES BY 2.5 PERCENT IN TWO DAYS
One U.S. dollar increased over 1 million 340 thousand Turkish liras (TL) in the interbank markets which feel the Iraqi tension while one U.S. dollar gained 2.5 percent value against the TL and increased to 1 million 341 thousand in the free market.

BANKS LAWS SENT TO CONSTITUTIONAL COURT
The True Path Party (DYP) sent the Banking Law to the Constitutional Court by taking into consideration the reasons for the veto of President Ahmet Necdet Sezer. DYP filed a lawsuit in the Constitutional Court on Thursday demanding the annulment of three articles of the Law on Amendment to Some Laws and Restructuring of Debts to Financial Sector.

SABAH (LIBERAL)
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HE IS STILL DEFYING
Prime minister Bulent Ecevit warned Iraqi President Saddam Hussein with a very polite style. However, Saddam complained about Turkey to the United Nations (U.N.) : ''Do not intervene in my internal affairs. Otherwise, it will be very bad.'' The response to the letter in which Ecevit warned Saddam against a possible U.S. operation on Iraq came yesterday. Saddam is still obstinate, and continues his threats, challenges, and harshly accuses Turkey. Saddam wants Ankara to clarify its Iraqi policy and take concrete steps for his country's territorial integrity. Iraqi leader stressed that his palaces will not be opened to U.N. inspection. Saddam, who wrote a letter to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, harshly complained about Turkey: ''Turkey should give up violating our air space. It should not intervene in our internal affairs and it should close its bases to U.S. and British planes.'

LATEST AKBULUT JOKE
Yildirim Akbulut resigned from the Motherland Party (ANAP), which he had lead and which had made him the Prime Minister and Parliament Speaker. Akbulut is joining the True Path Party (DYP). Thus, Akbulut became the first politician who resigned from the party he had lead and joined another party.

CUMHURIYET (LEFT)
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ECEVIT: ''PROBLEM SHOULD BE SOLVED WITHOUT ANY WAR''
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, U.S. Chief of General Staff Richard Myers, and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz are expected to pay visits one after the other to Ankara in March. That Cheney will also visit Jordan, Syria and Kuwait, which all have borders with Iraq, has led to comments that the United States is getting prepared for a possible operation. Ecevit said, ''we want and expect that the problems will be solved without any war.''

ANKARA DOES NOT BELIEVE PKK
The decision of the terrorist organization PKK to change its name was considered in Ankara as a step of the new politicization strategy of the terrorist organization. The security forces drew the attention that the aim of the terrorist organization to set up an independent state had not changed and its efforts to create a ''kurdish nation'' continued. The experts warned that Ankara had not created a strong strategy against new policies of the terrorist organization PKK yet.

RADIKAL (LEFT)
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BOTH DAMAGES AND DEATH TOLL CHANGED
The Natural Disasters Insurance Agency, the Public Works and Housing Ministry and Afyon Governorship gave different figures about the damaged buildings in the quake-hit Afyon province but reached a compromise on 2,050. The death toll was decreased from 43 to 41 due to ''wrong writing.'' The Governorship is still demanding tents. The Red Crescent: ''We have set up 14,500 tents. Five tents per one person.''

QUAKE SURVIVORS BLOCKED PATH OF SEZER
The path of the convoy of President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Chief of General Staff Huseyin Kivrikoglu was blocked during their visit to the quake zone. The quake survivors who said that they were hungry and no aid was coming were tried to be silenced by the security forces. Sezer changed his programme and went to Deresenek. Some aid lorries were sent to the hamlet.

ECEVIT: ''A BIG STEP HAS TAKEN IN PATH OF DEMOCRACY''
Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said that the adjustment law that was adopted at the Parliamentary General Assembly the previous day was a big step in respect of democratization. Ecevit touched on the discussion among his partners Motherland Party (ANAP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and said, ''pay the necessary attention not to drag politics into a bottleneck.''

TURKIYE (RIGHT)
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SITUATION GETTING SERIOUS
The workers who joined the survey in which ''the confidence in politics was interrogated' said, ''we will not vote for any of the political parties.'' Half of those who joined the survey carried out by the Health Employees' Union said that ''they had confidence in the politics'' while all of them said that ''they could not vote for any of the existing political parties.''

AYDIN ACQUITTED
Parliamentary Inquiry Commission decided not to send former Public Works and Housing Minister Koray Aydin to the Constitutional Court. The commission finalized its deliberations on the claims regarding Aydin in two months. The claims were related with the operation on the corruption in tenders of the Public Works and Housing Ministry. Aydin had resigned from his office and deputyship on September 5, 2001.

ZAMAN (CONSERVATIVE)
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''IMPLEMENTATION OF ARTICLES 159 AND 312 IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN AMENDMENT''
The jurists are cautious about the new arrangement in the articles 159 and 312 of Turkish Penal Code (TCK). The amendments to articles 159 and 312 of TCK passed from the parliament the previous day. The old shape of Article 159 was preserved, but only the limit of punishment was changed from 6 to 3 years. However, some changes had been made in the article 312. The expression ''possibility'' was replaced with the word ''danger.''

EUROPE FINDS 'ADJUSTMENT' INSUFFICENT
The European Union (EU) found the amendment to articles 312 and 159 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) ''positive'' but ''insufficient.'' Guenter Verheugen, the EU Commissioner for enlargement, sent messages to Ankara prior to his visit to Turkey in the following week through his speaker. Verheugen's speaker Jean-Christophe Filori told a group of Turkish journalists that they ''noted'' the amendments to articles 312 and 159 of TCK however, they had expected more. Filori stressed that they expected Turkey to take more serious steps regarding especially the freedom of expression and said that they wanted the continuation of political reforms of Turkish government. Filori added that Verheugen would bring into the agenda the issues regarding these amendments during his visit to Ankara in the following week.