Even the dead can’t avoid bureaucracy. We are living in a county with so much bureaucracy that it requires more than enough documents just to be buried. Many foreign clients ask me why the bureaucratic procedure takes so much time in Turkey. Sometimes even simple transactions can take a great deal of time and effort. [...]
Hundreds of Kurdish protesters have clashed with security forces in at least two Turkish towns. Violence broke out Tuesday in the southeastern cities of Batman and Cizre when police tried to prevent protesters from celebrating a traditional spring festival, Nowruz. One of the DHA news agency carried video footage that showed police using water cannons [...]
A recent court decision to drop a nearly two-decade-long trial regarding the death of 33 artists and intellectuals, along with two hotel workers and two assailants, has caused public outrage countrywide, but it has also showed clearly that Turkey has to investigate what really caused the massacre and who is really responsible for it. On [...]
Turkish authorities have confirmed that an ancient bible thought to be 1,500 years old is being kept safe after being seized from a gang of smugglers. The document is in Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ, written in gold Syriac characters on leather pages loosely bound together with string. It was part of a haul [...]
On Dec. 15, 2011, a most anticipated law was enacted. Parliament approved a new bill regarding exemption from military service in lieu of payment, which enables men who are 30 years old and older to skip military service in exchange for TL 30,000. According to “The Bill Amending the Law on Military Service,” men who [...]
This week I have taken the liberty of writing about my own complaints regarding a new procedure that makes life more difficult for nothing. The heading above is inspired by expats’ complaints regarding local regulations, which are already difficult for foreigners to understand. I want to let you know that you are not alone in [...]
Why would someone beat someone else? What a nasty topic to write about. I selected this heading greatly disturbed in my mind and heart. My first choice for the heading was “woman killers,” but then I felt that would be too strong. It is even difficult to write about this, but the extent of violence [...]
Applying for an ID number is one of the items on the “to do” list of an expat in Turkey. There has been some confusion about this and I was indeed expecting the banks and other institutions to get familiar with it sooner. The Yabanc? Kimlik Numaras? (YKN) matter, which stands for Foreigner Identity Number, [...]
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s tour of Arab Spring nations and the messages he gave during these visits continue to echo in the Turkish media. There is no doubt that these visits, which have further boosted Turkey’s international standing and Erdoğan’s popularity, will play a major role in the shaping of the future of these [...]
Turkey, which has had a tense past few months due to the escalation of terrorist acts on the part of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), was shaken once again on Tuesday by a bomb explosion in the capital, which left three people dead. Although officials have not yet made any statement about who may [...]
Turkey football is going through a rough period of time, since the match fixing scandal erupted 8 days ago, and resulted thus far in imprisonment and detainment of several high profile club chairmen, executives and managers. 8 days ago, as Fenerbahce president, one of the key figures in turkish football and head of one of [...]
(Justice and Development Party) led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with a mandate of 50% of popular support is a landmark event. Victory was expected, but not on a scale exceeding the 47% mandate of the 2007 elections. The heart of the matter is that Turkey is reaching unprecedented heights of economic prosperity and [...]
Residence permit-related matters are always popular and it is amazing that almost every question is based on an individual issue, pushing me to write about this topic frequently. I received the following email regarding residence permit applications based on marriage: “I moved over to Turkey in March 2011, initially on a tourist visa after being [...]
Investors looking to purchasing property in Europe this year could be well advised to choose Istanbul, the number 1 city for new property acquisitions and developments according to the latest Emerging Trends in Real Estate Report Europe from PwC and the Urban Land Institute. For the second year running, Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city and home [...]
At a recent press conference, held by the Turkish Real Estate Investing Partners Association (GYODER), it was revealed that property sales in Turkey to foreigners in 2010 were up 40% reaching sales of $2.5 billion compared to the previous year. Not quite eclipsing the pinnacle of Turkey’s property performance, between the economic peak in 2006 [...]
Turkey is going ahead with the construction of its first nuclear reactor, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday and stated very clearly and will make sure safe as possible and comply with rules. Prime Minister stated that sooner will be better for Turkey and he urged. “We want to finish them as soon [...]
