IranMania News, Iran
July 29 2005

Iranian climber dies on Mount Ararat in Turkey

Friday, July 29, 2005 - ©2005 IranMania.com

LONDON, July 29 (IranMania) - A 67-year-old Iranian mountain climber
has died on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey and his fellow climbers
are facing prosecution for entering a banned military zone, the
Anatolia news agency reported Friday.

"There will be legal action against the Iranian mountaineers for
climbing in a banned area of Agri (Ararat) Mountain," Turhan Turunc,
the chief prosecutor in the nearby town of Dogubayazit told Anatolia.

Mount Ararat, or Agri in Turkish, is located in eastern Turkey where
the borders of Iran, Armenia and the Azerbaijani exclave of
Nakhchivan meet.

Most of it is a banned military zone and climbers need special
permission from Turkish authorities for expeditions on the mountain.

The body of the dead climber, named as Ashker Baravan, was brought
down to Dogubayazit late Thursday by a local search-and-rescue team,
which launched an operation on the mountain after his 24 fellow
climbers alerted the authorities about the incident.

The man died at a height of some 5,000 meters, close to the mountain
summit, due to a yet unknown reason, Turunc said.