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On Friday, Turkish dailies generally covered the arms loaded truck caught heading to Syria in the southern Turkish province of Adana and Turkish PM Erdogan’s remarks on Al-Qaeda on his visit to Scandinavian countries.  

One of the topics with the largest coverage in Turkish press was the truck loaded with warheads caught by Turkish police in southern Turkish province Adana. Daily HURRIYET captioned the case as “Secret of the Truck” and stated that 933 rockets produced in central Turkish province Konya en route to Syria were caught in southern Adana province. 9 people were detained by police. The truck driver and the transportation firm claimed that they didn’t know about the arms. On the other hand, Daily YENISAFAK captioned the case as “War Truck." The daily stated that the truck was caught upon intelligence about drug smuggling but the police found 933 rocket heads which were allegedly to be transferred to Al-Qaeda in Syria. Daily ZAMAN also captioned the case and wrote “935 Rocket Heads in the Mysterious Truck.” The daily quoted Adana's Governor as saying the arms were produced in Konya and Adana and were on the way to Syria for some organizations or the state. Other dailies STAR, BUGUN TARAF, VATAN, HABER TURK, MILLIYET and SABAH published the news on their front pages with similar headlines.

Another topic with large circulation in Turkish press was PM Erdogan’s remarks on Al-Qaeda saying that Turkey has no connection with the organization and does not support its actions in the region. Touching on PM Erdogan’s visit to Sweden, Poland and Finland, dailies ZAMAN and AKSAM captioned the same quotation from PM Erdogan and wrote, “It’s all lie and slander that Al-Qaeda uses our borders.”  Dailies STAR SABAH, MILLIYET, YENISAFAK, HABERTURK and HURRIYET quoted PM Erdogan and wrote, “Al-Qaeda cannot take shelter in Turkey.”

Other hot topics discussed in Turkey were the missile deal with China, discussions on Erdogan’s statement on the inspection of private student hostels and apart-hotels and the lawsuit on the February 28 coup.

Daily AKSAM captioned “China pick spurs renewed offers." The daily wrote that Turkey’s missile deal with China pushed western powers such as the US, Italy and France to renew their offers, accepting the conditions of joint production and technological transfer which they had rejected beforehand. The Chinese firm’s deal includes joint production of missiles with Turkey and stipulates that they will transfer the technology to Turkey as well.    

On the other hand, the ongoing lawsuit on the “February 28 coup,” which deposed the government in 1997, was also placed on the front pages of some dailies as most of the detainees were released. Daily STAR captioned “Less than 28 are in jail for 28 February.” The daily wrote that one of the cases with the largets amount of witnesses and evidence seems to disappear slowly. 105 junta members were arrested within the scope of the case, but now only 5 are in jail as the rest have been released.

Erdogan’s statement on the inspection of private student houses and apart-hotels was also widely covered. The discussion erupted after PM Erdogan sated on Tuesday that he has a report on private student houses where boys and girls stay together and this case would be inspected by the government. The liberal daily RADIKAL captioned the issue and wrote “Students are not Problem but Victim.” The daily claimed that it has reached the report on southern Turkish city Denizli presented to PM Erdogan, and that the problem is not privately rented houses, but unregistered apart hotels rented out to students without having anything to do with the students themselves. On the other hand, YENISAFAK captioned “The Reality behind Student Houses.” The daily, similar to RADIKAL, wrote that Erdogan's remarks have nothing to do with students's privately rented houses, but are related to the unregistered apart-hotels which are rented out to students and where girls and boys stay together. The daily said that these places are prone to abuse and they were reported to Erdogan by women.