Record Number of Turkcell 'Snowdrops' Pass University Entrance Exams

ISTANBUL, Turkey, September 16, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Turkcell (NYSE:TKC, ISE:TCELL), the leading communications and technology company in Turkey, is delighted to announce that this year a record 730 students out of 1000 'Snowdrops scholars' who took the university entrance exams in Turkey will be going to university. Snowdrops scholars' rate of success with respect to university entrance exams is much higher than the country average; in cities like Hakkari, Diyarbakir, Mardin, and Sirnak, where the rate of success is the lowest throughout Turkey, 70 Snowdrops scholars will be going to university this year.

University entrance exams in Turkey present major challenges for students and passing them requires considerable financial and time commitments. Of the 730 Snowdrops, 120 will study to become teachers, 45 will study engineering, 33 will become nurses and 10 will go to medical school.

Koray Ozturkler, Turkcell's Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, said: "This is a great achievement for our Snowdrops students and programme. Many congratulations to all these students - we wish them every success in their university lives. Over the past decade Turkcell's Snowdrops programme has benefited thousands of girls in Turkey, giving them an education and a start in life they would otherwise have been denied. When this number of Snowdrops get into university it provides a real boost for our other Snowdrops and for the programme overall."

About Snowdrops

Many families in underdeveloped urban and rural areas of Turkey live below the poverty line. In these areas, education is not easily accessible for girls and in some regions male students outnumber female students two-to-one. 79 out of every 100 illiterate people in Turkey are women.

In 2000 Turkcell formed a partnership with the Association in Support of Contemporary Living (NGO CYDD) to set up the Snowdrops project which started in 37 priority cities and provided scholarship to 5,000 girls each year. The girls are nominated by local government officials, local educational institutions, teachers, NGOs, and Turkcell's local sales agents. Today, 10,000 girls all over Turkey continue their education with Snowdrops Scholarships.

Since 2000, more than 20,000 female students have gained access to education through Turkcell's scholarship support since the scheme began. Of these, 9,634 Snowdrops students have graduated from high school, 2,707 have been accepted to universities and 976 have graduated from college.

In 2004, Turkcell started a mentoring programme for those Snowdrops who continued their university education to help them integrate into big city and university life. Forty-six respected journalists and female managers within Turkcell volunteered to provide social and moral mentoring for the Snowdrops. Due to the success and positive feedback it received, this mentoring programme expanded in 2007 and the number of mentors and mentees has increased from 46 to 160.

ABOUT TURKCELL

Turkcell is the leading communications and technology company in Turkey with 33.9 million postpaid and prepaid customers and a market share of approximately 55% as of June 30, 2010 (Source: Operators' announcements). Turkcell provides high quality data and voice services to approximately 80% of the Turkish population through its 3G technology supported network and to 99.05% of the Turkish population through its 2G technology supported network. Turkcell reported TRY 2.2 billion ($ 1.5 billion) net revenue for the period ended June 30, 2010 and its total assets reached TRY 14.0 billion ($ 8.9 billion) as of June 30, 2010. Turkcell has become one of the first operators among the global operators to have implemented HSDPA+ and to reach to 42.2 Mbps speed with HSPA multi carrier solution. Turkcell is a leading regional player and has interests in international mobile operations in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Northern Cyprus and Ukraine which, together with its Turkish operations, had approximately 62.0 million subscribers as of June 30, 2010. Turkcell has been listed on the NYSE and the ISE since July 2000 and is the only NYSE-listed company in Turkey and is among the top 15% of companies listed on NYSE by its size as of April 2010. 51.00% of Turkcell's share capital is held by Turkcell Holding, 0.05% by Cukurova Holding, 13.07% by Sonera Holding, 2.32% by M.V. Group and 0.01% by others while the remaining 33.55% is free float. Read more at http://www.turkcell.com.tr/en

    For further information please contact Turkcell

    Nihat Narin, Investor and International Media Relations
    Tel: +90-212-313-1244
    Email: [email protected]
    [email protected]

    http://www.turkcell.com.tr

SOURCE Turkcell