The constitutional court on 28 February partly annulled law no 4,000, which provided for the privatisation of telecommunications. The court took similar action in 1994.

The government's Privatisation Administration (OIB) will wait until the court publishes its reasons for the decision in a few days' time before responding, an OlB spokesman said.

The appointment of a consultant from six bidders to prepare Turk Telekomunikasyon (Turk Telekom) for sale had been expected in March (MEED 8:12:95). It is unclear whether the government will open a new tender for consultancy or continue from the point where it stopped if parliament passes new legislation.

The law concerned provided for the telecoms privatisation by establishing Turk Telekom as a separate company from the Posts, Telegraphs & Telephones (PTF) Administration. This would allow the sale of 39 per cent of Turk Telekom. which was expected to raise much of the $20,000 million forecast in privatisation revenues in 1996.