
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 2, 1995                   TAG: 9511020081
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: ANKARA, TURKEY                                LENGTH: Short

TURKS HUNTING FOR LAKE 'MONSTER'

Authorities are sending investigators to Turkey's largest lake to look for what witnesses describe as a monster resembling a dinosaur.

After the provincial deputy governor recently claimed to have seen the creature, a parliamentary commission agreed to conduct a formal search. The monster is said to dwell in Lake Van, in eastern Turkey.

Some experts discount the reports.

``It is not possible for a creature of the size claimed by witnesses to live in a closed lake like Van,'' said Orhan Erman, a biology professor at Ataturk University in Erzurum.

Witnesses are insistent.

``The monster was just like in cartoons. It was black and had triangular spikes on its back. It looked like a dinosaur,'' said the provincial official, Bestami Alkan.

Other accounts differ, with some witnesses describing its head as hairy and horned, said Nadir Kartal, head of the commission.

- Associated Press

by CNB