A friend of mine was looking at the Foreign Office advice to travellers to Turkey recently and noticed the warning:-

Whilst I have no desire to take a metal detecting trip around Turkey (!) I am curious to know why they are banned!

how do you mean that? :S

 Exactly as I just said!!!  People use them as a hobby in the UK (mostly geeks admittedly)  I was just curious to know why they are banned!

 you mean the metal dedectors used in the shopping malls or airports?

or the ones that you use for searching for treasure etc...

 Well as they are advising TOURISTS I think we can safetly deduce it is the second one

 it is illegal to search those yes... it might be the same at anywhere i suppose

 But why is it illegal to search for metal?

 honey people dont buy it to search metal, if you are not caring for nature and making a research for some science etc...

they use it to search for gold or ancient metals which can be sold as antiques

 Of course they dont do it for any scientific research HONEY!

But as far as I am aware, it is legal in most countries provided you delare any antique finds (you may still be allowed to keep them).

Anyway, I am not interested in metal detecting in Turkey!!! I just wondered why it was bizarrely banned!

The only thing you are allowed to take home from Turkey when you leave is a toyboy!  But you may have to be an antique yourself to get one!