Türkİye

Turkish Press Review

Friday’s dailies focus on Thursday's military aircraft crash in central Turkey and the US dollar's record rise against the lira

06.03.2015 - Update : 06.03.2015
Turkish Press Review

ISTANBUL

The Anadolu Agency does not verify these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

The majority of Friday’s newspapers dedicated their front pages to Thursday's military aircraft crash in central Turkey and the U.S. dollar's record rise against Turkish lira.

"Half of them crashed," was TURKIYE’s headline, referring to the latest disaster to strike one of the country’s F-4 Phantom aircraft. The daily said that 12 Phantoms were left in Turkish Armed Forces’ inventory.

Two pilots were killed when the fighter jet crashed in Konya province Thursday morning. The crash involved an F-4E 2020 training aircraft that took off from Eskisehir province and crashed at a shooting range in Konya due to an as-yet-unknown reason, the General Staff said.

This is the second aircraft accident in the last two weeks. Four pilots were killed on Feb. 24 when two military RF-4E planes lost contact during reconnaissance flights in the Akcadag district of Turkey's southeastern Malatya province.

HABERTURK said: "Six martyrs in three aircraft crashes in the last nine days made people say ‘enough is enough’." On its front page, the paper wrote: "Someone should explain the reasons behind these crashes," stressing that both pilots killed in the incidents were experienced flyers.

"No confidence left over these aircrafts," was MILLIYET headline, referring to remarks by Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz. 

"We had modernized these aircraft. We were told that they are safe. ... I think we should think twice from now on, when we use these aircrafts," Yilmaz said after the crash.

Sezgin Tanrikulu, deputy chairman of the main opposition Republican People's Party, alleged that the incidents were the result of negligence. "The need to sell all such planes has been voiced many times. It is all a neglect of duty that such planes are still used for training," he said. 

The U.S. dollar’s record rise against the Turkish liras was another news item that many newspapers focused on.

With a front-page image of a burning dollar, MILLIYET wrote: "Dollar is 2.62 Turkish liras." "Tension is high in the country. Analysts indicate that the dollar may rise to 2.80 Turkish liras, depending on the developments abroad," the daily reported.

On its front page, DUNYA said that the Turkish lira had become a currency which has lost value most yesterday with the record rise of dollars.

The Turkish lira slipped against the U.S. currency, hitting a new record low as dollar index rises steadily.

Starting the day from 2.5628, the Turkish lira sank to 2.6020 in early afternoon, scoring a new record low against the dollar as the U.S. dollar index, which measures the dollar against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was at 96, a height last seen in 2003.

In the past year, the dollar’s value has gained more than 17 percent against the euro, more than 13.5 percent against the Japanese yen and more than 30 percent against Turkish lira.

"Birth pain of the new world," AKSAM’s headline read, referring to comments by Yigit Bulut, the presidential chief adviser, over the dollar's rise. Bulut said that the world is looking for new balance.

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