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 [...]
Are you trying to get or find out about how to obtain or get a residence permit for your new born baby in Turkey? Bureaucracy makes life difficult for everybody. We the people make things very complicated. I mean it — life is becoming more and more complicated every day. Just recently I heard about [...]
Voted Europe’s number 1 city for property by Price Waterhouse Coopers, Istanbul was one of the most active and prosperous global property markets in 2010. And with the latest official data revealing a 28.5% increase in tourist arrivals this January, all eyes remain fixed on the city where east meets west in 2011. According to [...]
This Valentine’s Day, a local animal charity has urged people looking for the perfect gift to avoid buying animals as presents. The Animal Rights Foundation’s “Don’t take part in this shame” campaign notes that every holiday, especially Valentine’s Day, thousands of animals are given as gifts but end up in shelters or on the streets [...]
England aims to double its trade with Turkey until 2015, revealed the Trade White Paper, the major trade and investment strategy document of the British Government, Anadolu News Agency reported. The new Trade White Paper announced by the ruling Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition of England emphasizes that trade and investment is key to growth and economic [...]
Mustafa Kemal, celebrated by the Turkish State as a Turkish World War I hero and later known as “Ataturk” or “father of the Turks,” led the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 after the collapse of the 600-year-old Ottoman Empire and a three-year war of independence. The empire, which at its peak controlled [...]
This e-mail message was sent by a single parent: “Dear sir, I would like to ask some advice regarding my three-month-old daughter, I am a British citizen, my daughter is also a British citizen born in England but her father is Turkish and his name is on her English birth certificate. We recently separated (although [...]
The Duchess of York got into diplomatic hot water with Turkey after making an undercover television documentary, WikiLeaks cables have shown. This was just a basic game and certainly kids more safe in Turkey than UK because alist Turkish family law or Turkish county court dosent allow kids to be abused legally, if you read [...]
Turkey joins the 41st annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), that will begin in Davos on Wednesday, after two-year break. After Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stormed out of a panel at the 2009 summit, in reaction to Israeli President Shimon Peres and the panel moderation, relations between Turkey and the World Economic [...]
