TURK PARTY LEADER’S BODY FOUND IN HELICOPTER WRECK
Reuters
March 27 2009
ISTANBUL, March 27 (Reuters) – Turkish searchers found the body of
the leader of a right-wing political party and the wreckage of his
helicopter on Friday, two days after it crashed during election
campaigning, broadcaster CNN Turk said.
Members of a local militia discovered the wreckage and six bodies,
including that of Muhsin Yazicioglu, head of the Grand Unity Party
(BBP), in a mountainous area of Kahramanmaras province, CNN Turk
reported.
At least one passenger survived the crash on Wednesday and called the
authorities for help, but bad weather and difficult terrain made it
difficult to reach the site, CNN Turk said.
All on board were dead when help arrived, it said. A journalist was
among the dead.
Yazicioglu was heading for the central town of Sivas, which he
represents in parliament, when his helicopter went down.
He founded the BBP, which combines nationalist and Islamist ideologies,
in 1993.
The party came under the spotlight in 2007 when two of its members
were charged in connection with the assassination of Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink.
The party has denied any links to Dink’s killing. (Writing by Ayla
Jean Yackley, editing by Tim Pearce)