Reported by Alexey Zhalov

From 21 to 24^th February 2008 in Ankara, the Speleological Club ANÜMAB to the Ankara University and the Union of Turkish Cavers organized the 4^th Turkish Speleological Symposium. It took place in the luxury hall in the building of the Faculty of European Sciences. In the symposium participated 120 representatives from 8 Caving clubs - MAD, BÜMAK, ANÜMAB, ESMAD, TAMAK, AKÜMAK, DEUMAK, EMAK, BÜMAD, as well as scientists from different Turkish universities.

The organizers of this event invited cavers from the Balkan countries, but the only one, who participated in the symposium, was Alexey Zhalov – vice-president of the Bulgarian Federation of Speleology and Secretary General of the Balkan Speleological Union.

The symposium was opened in the afternoon on 21th February and continued with presentation of reports. Till 23th February were presented 20 reports on different topics: biospeleology, protection and rational usage of the caves, cave explorations, bibliography, application of science methods in the speleological research, etc. More than half of the reports were presented by students-speleologists. One part of the reports of the scientific workers could be qualified as thematic lectures, aimed to form or enrich the knowledge of the auditory, consisted mainly of young speleologists. In the poster session were presented 8 wonderful posters, made by the cavers on topics, related to matters of penetration techniques and cave researches of separate sites and regions.

In the afternoon of 23th February took place a working meeting of the members of the Union of Turkish Cavers, where were discussed different questions and organization matters. Here we should inform the speleological society, that from the beginning of January 2008 the Turkish Speleological Union has a new Secretary General – Miss Meltem Pancaci from the Speleo Club ТАМАК – Antalya. The new Secretary could be contacted on е-mail: Aceasta adresa de e-mail este protejata impotriva spamului, JavaScript trebuie activat ca a putea vizualiza pagina. or Tel: ++905063307560.

In the end of this event, the participants visited the mountain Uglaz, where unfortunately, there are no caves.

The 4^th Speleological Symposium in Ankara was a very useful event with excellent organization. It proved beyond any doubt the good level of the Turkish speleology and marked the outlook of its future scandent development.

I would like to express my personal thanks to the organizers and all Turkish colleagues for their attention and hospitality!