ANKARA (A.A) - 22.04.2002 - These are some of the major headlines and their brief stories in Turkey's press on April 22, 2002. The Anadolu Agency does not verify these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

HURRIYET (LIBERAL)
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I AM PROUD OF BEING AN ARMENIAN LIVING IN TURKEY
Hrant Dink, the editor-in-chief of Armenian newspaper AGOS that has been published in Istanbul for six years, made interesting statements while answering questions of French magazine L'Express. Dink said that he was proud of being an Armenian living in Turkey. Dink made this invitation to Armenians in the West which claims that Armenians in Turkey were afraid: ''Come here, I am ready to speak. Because I am proud of being an Armenian living in Turkey. With my newspaper, I want to represent rebirth of this community. I dedicate myself to recovery of relations between Turkey and Armenia.'' He said, ''if Turkey does not democratize itself, Armenia can never be safe. I believe that Turkey may be a chance to this young state which is about to sink. It maybe an eutopia, but Armenia will have the chance of being a neighbor of a European Union member tomorrow because of Turkey.'' Hrant Dink said that they exploited Armenians in France or the United States to gain more votes in elections. Dink said, ''Armenian identity should not be sought in the year 1915 graves. I wish the Armenian intellectuals in the United States had come to Turkey to see how we live here.''

TURKISH CYPRIOT FOOTBALL PLAYER ESCAPES TO GREEK CYPRIOT CLUB
21-year-old soccer player Sabri Selden who became one of the victims of sports embargo imposed on the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) escaped to the Greek Cypriot side together with his parents to play for a Greek Cypriot football club. Selden who was a player of TRNC Superleague club Binatlispor signed contract with Anorthosis Famagusta club of the Greek Cypriot side. His new club paid him a 6 billion Turkish liras transfer fee and gave him a house and a car. Besides, Selden will be paid 3 billion Turkish liras each month and his new club promised to find job to his parents.

MILLIYET (LIBERAL)
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PROF. DOGRAMACI PLANS TO ESTABLISH UNIVERSITY AT BILKENT STANDARDS IN URFA
The Dogramaci family who is proud to have set up Bilkent University in Ankara, which can easily compete with Western universities, is now planning to set up a university at the same standards in the South East. General Staff Second Chief Yasar Buyukanit, at a recent invitation he attended said they were very excited and pleased about Bilkent University Rector Prof. Ali Dogramaci's project.

TURKISH WOMEN DON'T CUT SPENDINGS ON COSMETICS EVEN IN TIMES OF ECONOMIC HARDSHIP
Turkish women, who cut off spendings on several items to contribute to family budget, could not give up make-up during the recent economic crisis.
Costemics company Oriflame, which has 500,000 members and a sales team of about 70,000 people in Turkey, grew 25 percent during the economic crisis. CEO of Oriflame, Sven O. Mattson said that his company experienced similar economic crises Ecuador, Romania, Bulgaria and Russia. ''Our sales in Russia was extremely good. The same thing happened also in Turkey,'' he said.
''Turkish women care a lot about their appearance and our 25 percent growth is the best indication of this fact. We'll increase our investments in Turkey,'' Mattson said.

SABAH (LIBERAL)
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TIME-BOMB TO BUSINESS WORLD
The Tax Regulations Law foresaw imprisonment up to three years if fake receipts are used intentionally. During his term in office, Zekeriya Temizel, former finance minister, removed the word ''intentionally'' from the law early in 1999. This means that use of fake receipts ''unintentionally'' is also crime.

AGCA AND KIRCI ABOUT TO BE PARDONED
Can Ozbay, the lawyer of Mehmet Ali Agca who attempted to assasinate Pope John Paul II and is now serving his imprisonment sentence in Turkey on charges of killing Abdi Ipekci and usurpation, said, ''under the new amnesty law, Agca will once again benefit from the conditional release, and he will be free within two years.'' Meanwhile, Lawyer Huseyin Ayan said that Haluk Kirci who was sentenced to death on charges of killing seven leftist people in Bahcelievler and also to 4 years in Susurluk case, said that his client had been staying in prison for 14 years and the imprisonment sentences should decrease to 14.5 years under the new amnesty law so he would be released soon.

CUMHURIYET (LEFT)
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UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS
World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) insist on decrease in number of personnel in public sector. While World Bank defends that there is 125 thousand inactive staff in public sector, the IMF does not want an increase in the state's civil servants.

ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACKWARD
It always took years for Turkey which suffered fifteen serious crises to recover its economy. If there will be a three percent growth in 2002 and five percent growth each in 2003 and 2004 as it is planned, it will take six years to catch the period before the economic crisis.

GET READY FOR ELECTIONS
State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), stressed that there were two more years to the general elections but they should get prepared for the elections. He said that their target was to gain 290 seats at the parliament.

RADIKAL (LEFT)
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CEM AMBITIOUS ABOUT THE EU
Foreign Minister Ismail Cem stated that the EU has been convinced that bringing a solution to the Cyprus conflict cannot be a precondition to start membership talks with Turkey. He also said that no problems would be left if Turkey takes steps regarding education and broadcast in languages other than Turkey and banning of capital punishment. ''Turkey hasn't executed anyone in the last 18 years and everyone learns the language they want and they do broadcast in that language. We already overcame these problems. It wouldn't take more than a week to solve these issues,'' he commented.

EVERY YEAR 48 OUT OF 1000 BABIES DIE IN TURKEY BEFORE THEY REACH FIVE YEARS OLD
Every year, 48 out of 1000 babies die in Turkey before they reach five years old. This figure is only 5 or 6 in 1000 babies in European countries. Among its neighbours, Turkey has the highest baby death rate after Iraq. A recent UNICEF report pointed to the unbalanced situation between Turkey's east and west and called on the government to take measures to correct this situation. Death rate among children is 0.76 percent in Eastern Turkey while it is 0.38 percent in Western Turkey. In the East, 61 out of 1000 women never go to the doctor during their pregnancy while this figure is 14 out of 1000 women in the West.

TURKIYE (RIGHT)
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FIAT GENERAL DIRECTOR:''WE'LL CONTINUE INVESTMENTS IN TURKEY''
FIAT International General Director Maurizio Magnabosco said that his company suffered significant financial troubles in Turkey during the economic crisis but this won't stop them from continuing investments in Turkey.
Magnabosco said that since 1962, the company sold 500,000 tractors, 180,000 trucks and one million 900,000 cars. He indicated that FIAT Tofas was producing 30 percent of the cars in Turkey and added that FIAT's investments in Turkey have totalled up to 600 million USD so far.

IMF WORRIED ABOUT TL'S GAINING VALUE
IMF, in a recent report published, indirectly stated that it was worried about the Turkish Liras's gaining value and as a solution it proposed the Turkish Central Bank to strengthen foreign currency reserves. IMF said in its report that a valuable TL could weaken Turkey's export and called on the Turkish Central Bank to build up foreign currency reserves by making use of the payment of balances which turned out to be better than it was expected.

ZAMAN (CONSERVATIVE)
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ADS FOR TURKEY START TO BE SHOWN IN U.S. TV
Ads prepared by the Tourism Ministry recently started to be shown on the U.S. tv channels including CNN, History Channel, Discovery, Bravo, NY1, ABC, CBS, and NBC. The ads are shown at times when the highest number of spectators watch, after prime time. Turkey's New York Tourism Attache Levent Demirel said that American tourists who come to Turkey are mostly middle aged and educated people. He indicated that Turkey set aside 6 million USD for promotional activities in the U.S. market.