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How one Turkish village became rich overnight

Many impoverished villagers in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast have made a fortune selling chunks of a meteorite after one exploded in September, while tax inspectors gripe about not receiving their share.
Brigitte Zanda, head of the meteorite collection at the National Museum of Natural History, poses with a 1.3 kilogram meteorite which is more than 4.5 billion years old in Paris February 9, 2010. This chondrite meteorite was formed when various types of dust and small grains present in the early solar system concentrated to form primitive asteroids.     REUTERS/Benoit Tessier   (FRANCE - Tags: SOCIETY SCI TECH) - RTR2A0C4
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Life in the impoverished village of Saricicek in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast changed overnight on Sept. 2, when treasure rained down from the sky. The sound of an explosion around midnight, followed by an illuminated sky, terrified the villagers but was soon to send them into rapture.

The mountainous village is in Bingol province, a region where Kurdish militants have long fought Turkish security forces. So residents thought that what they had seen and heard were rockets and bombs being fired in a yet another confrontation. But the owner of Saricicek’s only Internet cafe, Nezir Ergun, noticed black rocks falling onto his garden and soon realized a meteorite had exploded. He notified Bingol University and handed over the chunks to a team of scientists who rushed to the village. 

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