Registering a foreign phone in turkey

Turkey controls the mobile phones that are allowed to be used in the country. If you buy a phone inside the country you shouldn't need to worry, but if you bring a phone from outside the country, after 2 weeks you should receive the following SMS:

"****** IMEI nolu cihaz kayit disi listensinde oldugundan dd-mm-yyyy tarihinde kullanim disi birakilacaktir. Hattiniz acik kalacaktir. Bilgi icin4440532" (turkish characters are not sent through SMS)

So I just brought my most recent phone (HTC Desire) and got the message after a few days. I knew what to do since I had done it before, go to Türkcell with:

* The phone with the turkish SIM card

* The passport with a stamp of entry in the last 30 days

* The residence permit (you need a subscription instead of prepaid if you don't have the residence permit)

* 10 TL

The problem is that my entry stamp at the passport was not visible enough... I have about 50 stamps by now and very few look as bad as this last one! The month is not clear at all, so they didn't accept it...

I then had to go to the Police Station to request a declaration of my last entry date. For this you need to go to a local Emniyet, fill up a request, stamp it (kaşe yaptırmak), photocopy the first page of the passport, and the next day you can pick up the declaration.

Not that bad after all, but pretty frustrating if you think that all you needed was the border cop to stamp it in a visible way...