World Notes TURKEY

Although Turkey's Prime Minister Turgut Ozal, 61, has led his nation to a new level of economic and social advancement during five years of leadership, last week was one that he may want to forget. First, Ozal's historic meeting in Greece with Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou to settle differences between their nations ended in an affable but thorough stalemate. Back home in Ankara, while Ozal was addressing a rally of his center-right Motherland Party, a man in the crowd opened fire with a gun, wounding the Prime Minister in the thumb.

Ozal ducked under the podium and delegates scrambled to get out of the Ataturk convention hall as bullets fired by security guards sprayed the room. More than a dozen people were wounded by gunfire, and several were injured in the stampede. The would-be assassin was immediately captured. He was identified as Kartal Demirag, a Turk who had recently escaped from prison, where he was being held for attempted murder. Ozal, who later had three stitches in his hand, returned to the podium to tell cheering delegates, "No one can take away the life given by God except God himself."