ECEVIT WITH ECONOMY MINISTER HIKMET ULUGBAY IN FRONT OF HOSPITAL, 1999-07-13 (photo)

Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit (L) accompanies State Minister for Economy Hikmet Ulugbay (R) as Ulugbay is discharged from hospital in Ankara July 13. Ulugbay had been taken to hospital after an apparent suicide attempt July 7 in which two shots he fired from underneath his chin failed to kill him. Ulugbay led the Turkish delegation which held talks with the International Monetary Fund team in Ankara in the last two weeks of June. Turkish newspapers reported that details of the IMF talks had been leaked by a senior treasury official to Mesut Yilmaz, head of the Motherland Party, junior partner in the government of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit. The newspapers said the information was used by a brokerage house owned by one of Yilmaz's relatives in an insider trading move. Ecevit, Yilmaz and Ulugbay all denied the reports. FS/KM