[August 20, 2014]

Turkcell Wishes Success to Turkey's Elite Swimmers for the European Championships in Berlin

Turkcell (News - Alert) (NYSE:TKC) (BIST:TCELL), Turkey's leading telecommunications and technology company, and Turkish Ministry of Sports and Youth had joined forces to improve the standing of swimming in Turkey and train Turkish athletes to be among the champions at the 2020 Olympics. Turkey's elite swimmers who were trained by in Baltimore by Bob Bowman (News - Alert), the trainer of the Olympic legend Michael Phelps, are on the international competition scene for the first time with the European Championships in Berlin.

(Photo: Business Wire)

Nezir Kara and Doga Celik are among the swimmers that are representing Turkey in free style while Alpkan Ornek enters the pool for breaststroke and medley categories. Nezir, Doga and Alpkan were among the 5 elite swimmers who were trained in Baltimore by Bowman and his team as a part of the "Olympic Performance Project" launched by Turkcell and Turkish Swimming Federation.

Other members of the Turkish national swimming team in Berlin are Ediz Yildirimer, Doruk Tekin ve Iskender Baslakov in men, and Ezgi Yazici and Gizem Bozkurt in women. Within the framework of the Olympic Performance Project, Turkish national swimming team is trained by Fernando Canales, a member of Bob Bowman's trainers' team.

Following up on a week of national success
Prior to the European Championship, 5 swimmers whohave been trained in Baltimore competed in Turkey's national Swimming Championship sponsored by Turkcell. Between the 5 of them, they broke 6 national records and won 9 gold medals. The athletes have shown significant improvement in their individual performances on the way to the 2016 Olympics.

595 athletes from 24 different cities and 73 different teams competed at Turkcell Turkish Swimming Championship.

Raising the profile of swimming with a grass roots approach
With their partnership, Turkcell and the General Directorate of Sports under the Ministry of Sports and Youth aim to increase the number of active licensed swimmers, create sustainable success in swimming as well as securing recognition for Turkish swimming in the international arena.

With the local initiatives held under the project, the number of licensed swimmers in Turkey increased from 18 thousand to 32 thousand in just more than a year, registering an increase of 80%. Doubling the participation of last year, over 20 thousand young swimmers, aged 8-12, are expected to participate this year in Turkcell Swimming Days, which are being held in 40 Turkish cities in August and September.

ABOUT TURKCELL: Turkcell is the leading communications and technology company in Turkey, with 34.6 million subscribers as of June 30, 2014. Turkcell is a leading regional player with its approximately 69.5 million subscribers in nine countries as of June 30, 2014. It has become one of the first among the global operators to have implemented HSPA+. It has achieved up to 43.2 Mbps speed using the Dual Carrier technology, and is continuously working to provide the latest technology to its customers. Turkcell Superonline (News - Alert), a wholly owned subsidiary of Turkcell, is the first telecom operator to offer households fiber broadband connection at speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps in Turkey. As of March 2014, Turkcell's population coverage is at 99.49% in 2G and 86.37% in 3G. Turkcell reported a TRY2.9 billion (US$1.4 billion) revenue with total assets of TRY21.8 billion (US$10.3 billion) as of June 30, 2014. It has been listed on the NYSE and the BIST since July 2000, and is the only NYSE-listed company in Turkey. Read more at www.turkcell.com.tr

You can now follow the most up-to-date Turkcell developments on Twitter (News - Alert):
http://twitter.com/TurkcellNews

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20140820005619/en/

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