Wrecker, I know this "rolls off the tongue" and sounds like the best way to decide/know such things. I mean, "who better to ask, than the entity themselves?". So for example, if someone looks up the laws for his town, yet doesn't know if he's found a complete enough listing, or finds something nebulous and vague which "might apply", and so forth. What's the best solution? To ask. Sounds logical enough, right? Afterall, you can't be "too safe", right? And the same applies to county, state, federal, and national levels too. Right? Who can argue with that afterall?
And even persons making state-by-state and/or national lists for reference sakes, have used the same tactic: To know what the laws are for the resource list they are writing up, they merely send out 50 inquires to all 50 states heads-of-state's-parks. Or a letter to each "interior dept" in each European country, and so forth. Then sit back, wait for the replies to come in, and compile the answers in their resource list. Great idea, right?
In fact, some people would even promote doing this from the git-go, since .... let's face it ... looking up laws and rules can be arduous, and perhaps it's not readily available on-line (for smaller cities, for instance), or too voluminous to read through looking for any mention of "metal detecting". So why not just nip-it-in-the-butt and just go ask "can I metal detect?" Sounds logical enough, right?
But here's where the pain starts: People have done just that all the time. I suppose you can see the folly of this approach on small town basis, where some city clerk tells you "no", when no such rule really says such a thing (because she thinks you'll harm earthworms, hurt sprinklers, etc...). So the poor dejected md'r leaves city hall, sad that he can't detect. But lo & behold, he passes the park, see another out there "breaking the law". So he tells the guy "don't you know you're not allowed to detect here?" To which the guy who's been detecting there for 35+ yrs. says "since when?". It becomes the case of "no one cared, till you asked" (barring if you were being a nuisance or leaving holes, etc...).
To which you no doubt will say that this doesn't hold true on the national scale. But oddly, yes it does. Read this account of Fisher Co, who forwarded a customer inquiry, to the consulate (or some such border interior dept person) in mexico. A customer had asked "can we metal detect in Mexico?" (they were getting ready to go to a tourist beach down there). So Fisher Co. did just what you recommend with such an inquiry. They asked (who better to ask, than Mexico themselves, right? ).
Here's a little bit more on that:
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/treasure-hunting-legal-issues/54424-detecting-mexico.html
So yes, I agree, it sounds like the logical and safe thing to do. But oddly, you WILL get "no's" from some of those places. I mean, put yourself in the shoes of the bureaucrat who answers that phone call. What do YOU think the "safe" answer is going to be? Perhaps his image is of geeks with shovels raiding the pyramaids, sneaking gold bars out of the country. So he must "pass this question" to the ministry of archaeology dept, and so forth.
So too might a foreigner, who is getting ready to travel to the USA also get a "no" if he inquired ahead of time to the "dept. of interior" here in the USA. Why? Because perhaps whomever has fielded their question is couching it in terms of ARPA, or the mel fisher legal hassles, or lost & found laws, or whatever. Yet we all know you CAN detect here, barring certain places, and assuming you're using some common sense.
Thus, no, I do not think it's a wise idea to ask the interior dept "can I metal detect there?". Perhaps a compromise would be to ask them "where can I find a complete listing of the nation's laws". Then look it up yourself. Perhaps it's on-line, and they can link you.
Or heck, just ask the dealers there (there ARE md dealers in Turkey). If they are selling to people who (gasp) USE them, then .... apparently there must be some usage there.
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