TURKEY IS LIKELY TO HOST MEDITERRANEAN GAMES IN 2013

Yunus Akgul, the director general of Turkey's Youth & Sports Department, said Thursday that southern Turkish province of Mersin would most probably be the host of the 2013 Mediterranean Games.
"Amar Addadi, the president of the International Committee for the Mediterranean Games, has asked Mersin to construct two or three new sports halls and a sports village," Akgul told AA correspondent.
Akgul said Libya and Spain were the other candidates, but saw Mersin's chance as higher because Spain had hosted the event in 2005.
Addadi would make his final decision on the venue of the 2013 Mediterranean Games within a month.
The organization committee chose Greek city of Volos to organize the event, however the Greek government had said it could not host the games due to the global economic crisis.
Moreover, Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter to the International Committee for the Mediterranean Games (ICMG) to express the government's guarantee to host the 2013 Mediterranean Games.
The first vote will be on February 23 and the second one on February 28. The country receiving 51 percent of votes will host the 2012 Mediterranean Games.
The Mediterranean Games, organised every four years, stand as the greatest multidisciplinary sport event for the countries of the Mediterranean Basin after the Olympic Games, gathering the sport delegations of the Mediterranean NOCs members of the ICMG in more that 25 disciplines.
The first Mediterranean Games were held in Alexandria in 1951; the last edition took place in Pescara (Italy) in 2009.
Turkey's Aegean province of Izmir hosted the Sixth Mediterranean Games in 1971.