One important thing about Turkey: It is impossible to answer a question about “Turkey”. Because Turkey is one of the most diversified countries in the world in terms of world views, political views, religion, socioeconomical differences and even physical features of people. So we have to narrow down the question to a specific group of people and locations.
I’ve been around the world, worked in and visited a lot of countries. The thing that caught my eye is that, in the Western media (movies, news channels etc…) without exception Turkey is shown as a very underdeveloped country with illiterate, rude and ugly looking population. People ride camels, they eat with their hands, there is not a single tree anywhere, everywhere is desert, and mosques are the only buildings in the country. I don’t have the knowledge to comment on the political reasons why it is shown as so, however, from personal experience of 32 years of being Turkish, I know and see that it is not the case. There are some parts of Turkey more developed than many Western countries. There are millions of people in Turkey living a better life than the average European-American citizen.
If you are at least in the middle-upper socioeconomical class and live in any other big city than Istanbul, then life in Turkey is generally better compared to living under the same conditions in a Western-European country or the USA (more on this later).
If you are in the underprivileged group living on minimum wage or less in an underdeveloped and extremely conservative city, or worse, trying to live in Istanbul with minimum wage then life in Turkey is extremely hard and depressing. Your European-American equivalent is living a much, much better life than you do.
If you are an expat in Turkey, earning your salary in USD/EUR/GBP, then no matter what your job is, you will be very relaxed in terms of economical power.
Now, let’s elaborate on our answer.
Which city?
The first thought that comes to our minds is Istanbul, right? It is the most developed city in Turkey (and one of the most developed in the world) with lots of job opportunities and leisure activities.
Although it is an amazingly beautiful city with an extremely important geopolitical position, historical importance and lots of places to visit, it is just too crowded. No matter how rich or educated you are life in Istanbul is hard. It is just chaos. Traffic congestion, crime rate, stupidly expensive housing prices are just few of the problems in Istanbul. “Traffic congestion” for example, might be seen as a minor problem for many, but imagine that you spend 4 hours everyday in order to commute from home-workplace-home. How would that feel? Well, that’s how many people live in Istanbul, apart from the lucky few who live in places very close to their workplaces.
If you come to Istanbul as a tourist or on a short term project basis, it is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. However if you decide to live in Istanbul, good luck. So, quite short answer is: Life is hard in Turkey if you live in Istanbul.
There are lots of beautiful cities in Turkey. Of course they have their shortcomings compared to Istanbul (less job opportunities, lower salaries, less places to visit, worse infrastructure etc.) however life is much more relaxed in cities like Antalya, Izmir, Muğla, Gaziantep.
So, first rule: If you live in Turkey, live in any city but Istanbul.
Education
State schools are free in Turkey. State universities’ annual fee is not going to hurt your budget if you are from middle class (most of them are in the $500-$1000 range excluding medicine faculties). So if you would like to study in Turkey, you can go as far as getting a PhD for a very small cost (compared to American universities).
Education quality has significantly decreased in the last 15 years (guess why:) ) for most of the high scools, yet there are still many high-quality schools maintaining their education quality. Many people still manage to get admitted to top universities in the UK and the USA after studying at these high schools.
Many new universities have been opened in the last 10 years. Almost all of them are useless places without the ability to educate students. So, education at many universities, regardless of their status (state-private) is terrible.
However, if you manage to get into one of the better ones (Koc University, Bogazici University, Bilkent University, METU etc…) then you will get a world class education.
For example, I obtained both of my undergrad degrees from a private university in Izmir. It is one of the good universities in Turkey. Then I received one of my masters degrees from one of the best universities in the world (it’s in the UK) and the other from the best university of Netherlands. The education quality both at the UK and Netherlands was amazing, and I learned a lot during my studies there. However, my point is, I noticed that I was able to get my masters degrees quite comfortably, without pushing myself too much thanks to the very good education I got during my undergraduate studies. The education quality I got during my undergraduate studies was not worse than the education quality of my time abroad. The reason why Turkish universities are generally ranked lower than well known European, Chinese, Japanese and American universities is Turkey does not provide enough funding for research. So professors tend to do their research abroad (how sad for Turkey) and earn their salary in Turkey just by teaching classes as if they were teaching at high school, thus the low ranking of Turkish universities. However, as I said, even though the domestically conducted research at the academician level is limited, education is world class at better universities. I’ve got lots of friends who went on to pursue their masters and doctorate studies at the very best universities in the world (Harvard, Oxbridge, LSE, Stanford, Yale, MIT, UC Berkeley…. etc) after studying in Turkey.
Cultural Values
This is one of the harder things to get used to for a non-Turkish person. If you are born in Turkey, and lived at least 15 years in here, Turkish culture is going to be something you miss when you live abroad (at least I did).
Again, this depends on the city you live in. Culturewise, Turkey is divided in two with a very sharp line. 50% of the population live entirely different lives than the other 50%. It is really hard to believe that the culture and lifestyle of people may differ this much in a single country.
If you live in extremely conservative cities like Yozgat, Konya, Sivas -basically any city in the Anatolian or Eastern region- then it is really very, very hard to be happy for younger people (older people tend to stick to traditions and it is impossible to change or even question their beliefs about how things should be done). Because your family will decide what you will do with your life including what your job is going to be, who your partner in marriage is going to be, how many children you are going to have, what you are going to wear (especially if you are a woman), what your religion is going to be (it is very likely that you will be physically attacked if you do not fast during Ramadan, or if you declare that you are not Muslim), basically everything.
If you live in cities with a more liberal, open-minded and modern view, and if you have an educated family, then you are going to be fine. You will have total freedom in your life. People don’t care about what you do, what you wear, who you marry, what your religion is unless your freedom crosses theirs.
Well, let’s visualise the situation of women from different regions of Turkey so that it is easier to understand:
Turkish women shown in Western media (and true for Anatolian cities):
Typical Turkish women in Western cities. Notice that the more Westernised women are getting along well with the woman who wears traditional headscarf. This is normally how it should be.
Young people enjoying the sunset in Bostanli, Izmir:
Turkish culture is collectivistic. This has its downsides and upsides.
You are never alone (Good). This is both good and bad. When you feel down, or something bad happens, or you want to share something, somebody is always there.
You know that if anything bad happens to you, your family and your close friends will do everything they can (even if it puts them into an inconvenient situation) in order to help you, even if you don’t want it. And in short or long term, they will not expect anything in return. They’ll do it just because you are their friend/family. One for all, all for one. This is how it works in Turkey.
There are many people in Turkey who become happy by making other people happy or solving their problems.
You are never alone (bad). Imagine you have your PhD in Economics, but you decided that you don’t want to do anything with it. So you tell your friends that you are going to open a pub. Many of them will judge you and tell you that you should not do it, because you spent many years to get that degree, so you should use it. If you do not listen to them and open a pub they will tell everybody their disapproval of your decision and you will be the subject of the following discussions for the next year. Your decisions are not only your decisions, people will talk about it. People will judge you.
You can evaluate the culture and happiness level of people in Turkish cities by looking at how they behave to animals. There are lots of stray dogs and cats in the streets and people behave them differently according to their region’s culture. In some cities, they are beaten, tortured, and unfortunately even raped. However, in other cities, you will see in addition to a high percentage of people having pets at their home they also take care of stray dogs and cats. Shop owners leave a bowl of food and water in front of their shops, elderly ladies and gentlemen feed them in the mornings when they go out for a walk, random people just take a moment to pet the dog they see on the street etc.
If, in the city you live in, a stray dog/cat approaches you for no reason with a friendly look on its eyes and offers its paws letting you hold them then you should know that you will get along well with the people in that city.
This one is a little bit hard to explain to non-Turkish people, but there is a “legal rulelessness” in Turkey and everybody is cool with it. People sometimes don’t behave according to the rules or even law, yet nothing happens unless somebody else is harmed by their actions. For example, alcohol consumption in public is illegal in Turkey. However, you will frequently see friend groups sitting in parks and drinking beer. If a police sees them, depending on the city, he either warns them to stop drinking in public or he just keeps on walking. I have never seen somebody being detained for drinking in public, which should be the case according to law.
This is just one example, but you get the point. There are tons of other examples where people do anything they want even if it contradicts the law. Nobody cares unless somebody is disturbed or harmed by their actions. And people are generally very respectful towards other people and try not to disturb anybody while engaging in “legal rulelessness”.
Family ties are generally very strong in Turkey. This is generally an advantage as you always have someone to give you a hand when you fall. However sometimes it is not. I’ve got several single friends who still live with their family. All of them are over 30 years old. It’s not because they cannot afford to live alone. All of them are decent earning white collar people with good education. The reason why they still live with their family is that they are too comfortable with their moms looking after them, and they just don’t want to undertake the responsibilities of living alone or getting married. So life in Turkey is good when your mom and dad are still alive and you live with them :) It doesn’t matter how old you are, you are still their baby boy/girl.
Is this much collectivism really good? This is my subjective view but I think that these people will struggle later in life when at some point they will have to part from their families.
People are easy to make friends with. You will be friends with your neighbours, and local shops in your neighbourhood. If, let’s say, a person tries to scratch your car when he thinks nobody is around, the local pub owner who knows you, will intervene and fight in order to protect your car (well, a similar version actually happened to me). Your barber will charge you less because you’re from the neighbourhood, your neighbour will take care of your baby for as long as (days, weeks….) you ask him/her to if you have an important thing to do etc. Neighbourhoods in Turkey are small communities where everybody takes care of each other.
If you visit somebody at their home, you will be treated like royalty. In addition you will never be allowed to pay when you go to a restaurant or any other place with your host. And most probably, when you decide to end your stay you will be given gifts by your host.
This is one of the few common traits of all Turkish people: hospitality.
In brief, if you live in a developed Western city of Turkey, you can keep your individuality to a high degree while having many advantages of a collectivistic culture. It’s a win-win. That’s why I decided to come back to Turkey for good when I was living abroad.
Healthcare
State covers all your medical bills in case of an emergency. Also, a changing percentage (up to 100%, generally around %80) of your medical bills are covered by SGK (Social Security Institution) depending on what your medical condition is. All citizens of Turkey are covered by SGK.
There are “family doctors” assigned to every family, and for basic health issues (fever, diarrhea etc) you can walk into their office without appointment and get a treatment for free. Even many Turkish people don’t know this but you can also have blood tests and analyses, smear tests and various other tests for free when you go to your family doctor.
Ministry of Health has a website (
Seyahat Sağlığı - Anasayfa ) for Turkish people planning to travel abroad. All countries in the world are listed there with their potential health risks. Ministry of Health offers free preventive vaccinations to people traveling to countries with potential health/virus risks.
Many hospitals have high quality equipments and Turkish doctors are very good in their profession. If you have to undergo a serious operation (heart surgery, brain surgery) you don’t need to worry that you’ll go bankrupt. Even if you have a surgery which SGK does not cover, your medical bill is not going to be extremely high (Compared to the USA).
Only if you have a very rare health issue (one in a million type) you may have financial difficulties as the treatment may get very expensive, because SGK generally does not cover these types of health issues.
Currency
This is the worst part. Turkish Lira’s value decreased by more than 50% in the last 2 years and it is likely that this trend will continue in the following years. So if you earn your living in Turkish Liras in Turkey, it is very hard to make a long term financial plan.
For example, today, compared to 5 years ago I have more savings in TL, earn significantly more in Turkish Liras, have more job experience and a better CV. However looking at the dollar and euro exchange rate, I can say that I’m no richer than 5 years ago. God knows what my situation will be 5 years from now. If I had done what I’m currently doing in Turkey in any of the developed Western countries, my financial situation would have definitely improved over time.
Economy is in free fall. I work hard but I earn less when converted to dollars. Since Turkey imports virtually everything from food to electronics, earning in TL is meaningless as TL continues to lose its value this quick against dollar and euro. TL got devalued by 30% since the beginning of this year. I am 30% poorer compared to January 2018. Just in 6 months.
I was talking to a friend on the phone a couple of days ago. He has been working for the last 10 years in one of the major banks in Turkey, and he became a manager couple of years ago. He told me, without disclosing his actual salary, that his current salary was 5 times more than what he started with 10 years ago, but it is only $300 more when converted to dollars. So basically, he worked for 10 years in a bank in order to more or less maintain the same lifestyle he had 10 years ago. This is just ridiculous.
10 years ago Turkish people used to live very comfortably. Even middle class people were able to enjoy an affluent lifestyle. Traveling to expensive countries was not considered a financial burden for many. Today, as I said numerous times in my answer, you have to be at least middle-upper class to have the same lifestyle.
I and many of my friends with good education work hard, and we are experts in our professions. We could work anywhere in the world and be successful. However, everyday we continue to work in Turkey, paradoxically we get poorer even when we earn more.
This is the main reason why many educated people in Turkey are finding jobs abroad and leaving the country. Turkey is losing its educated population. Many high net worth and ultra high net worth individuals are liquifying their assets and leaving the country for good because they are afraid that what they managed to save over decades is going to be eroded due to the failing economy and TL if they keep their savings in Turkey and in TL.
This is scary for the future of Turkey as the people who contribute most to the economical well-being of the country are fleeing to other developed countries. What is going to happen when the majority of people who create value, development and money for their country are no longer there? I guess we all know the answer.
And this is the main reason (apart from the politics which I intentionally do not talk about as it is an endless discussion) why you should consider twice before you move to Turkey and establish your life here.
I stated somewhere in the first paragraphs that life in Turkey for underprivileged people was hard. This is also the main reason why. With today’s exchange rate, minimum salary in Turkey is around $300 per month (and there are many people earning less than minimum salary). An average 2+1 flat in Istanbul costs at least $400 per month.
So, again, if you earn in USD/EUR/GBP, Turkey might be heaven for you.
Having said all of these, life in Turkey is still cheap compared to many developed countries. Food, services (haircut, car maintenance, electrician, cleaning services etc.), medical bills, gym membership, hotel prices etc. anything other than electronics (all imported) and cars (all imported) are still affordable, and lets the middle-class live comfortably. Typical middle class people are still able to buy a house and an additional summer house before retirement. They can afford taking regular vacations each year, spare money for their hobbies, eat whatever they want, whenever they want, go out with their friends regularly, and save some money for rainy days after all of these.
Cuisine
People from other countries know kebab and baklava (“kebap” in Turkey). They are just a small part of Turkish cuisine. Kebab and baklava are originated in Eastern Turkish cuisine.
Turkish cuisine offers much more than kebab and baklava. Every region of Turkey has its specialty. As Ottoman Empire interacted with many different cultures and races, Turkish cuisine got various dishes from all around Europe-Asia-Africa. So it’s a mixture of everything. Eastern Turkey cuisine is based on meat and poultry whereas Western Turkish cuisine is generally based on vegetables, olive oil, herbs and fish. Northern and Southern cuisines are also different. And all of them are delicious. I still have not tasted a single Turkish dish the taste of which I did not like.
As for the alcoholic beverages, there are several high quality Turkish wine brands, but the most popular drink that has come out of Turkey is of course Raki (a.k.a Lion’s Milk).
Aegean region examples:
Eastern region examples:
Black Sea:
And of course let’s not forget “Full Turkish Breakfast”
Activities
Whatever you would like to do, you can find in Turkey. Again, you need to be in one of the big and modern cities. Theater plays, any kind of sports, hiking, fishing, horseback riding, nightlife, museums, festivals, free seminars, free continuous education programmes…. You name it.
There are also lots of parks and green areas in developed cities where people take a walk, cycling lanes are being built in the last years for cyclists and people who commute to work with bicycles.
The best part is geographical location of Turkey. If you live in coastal cities such as Izmir, Muğla, Antalya etc. you can have a vacation every weekend from spring to autumn. Because it is generally around 30-min to 1 hour drive to beaches. And beaches in Turkey are some of the most beautiful in the world.
There are tons of historical places to visit all around the country. I still have many places to visit in Turkey on my bucket list.
In brief, you will not get bored.
Beach example:
Climate
Different regions of Turkey have different climates. In the northern part, it’s generally rainy most part of the year. Temperature difference is not too much between seasons (22–24C during summer). And there are breathtakingly beautiful and endless forests in the Black Sea region:
In the Mediterranean and Aegean regions it gets very hot during summer (average 30C, can go over 40C regularly) and there is almost no rain. Winters are generally warm-ish (8–10C average, rarely below 0C) and with lots of rain. Spring and autumn are generally amazingly beautiful in Mediterranean climate.
In the Anatolian region, temperature during summers is generally between 20–23C, during winters it gets under 0C regularly. It rains less than the other regions.
The southeastern part and the Eastern part have the hottest summers in the country. In Şırnak, a record temperature of 49C was recorded in 1961. Almost every year, people make omelettes literally “on the road” in Adana to demonstrate how hot it gets.
Basically, a climate for every preference is present in Turkey. If you like skiing, it’s fine, you can go to Uludag or Erzurum:
If you have a beach body and like to show off, no problem, just pick a coastal city in the Aegean or Mediterranean region:
Language
Turkish is a very rich language, but learning it is hard. So if you are a foreigner living in Turkey, life might be a little harder for you for the first couple of years. Many Turkish people in developed cities know English, some of them also know other languages (generally German, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian) but don’t expect your local shop owner to know more than a few basic words. As a tourist, it’s no problem because somehow Turkish people know how to get along with foreigners. However if you decide to live in Turkey for a long time, it might be good to start learning Turkish today because you’ll need it at some point.
Bureaucracy
This used to be a real pain in the … 10 years ago. However, thanks to the developing technology, you can get various official documents and official appointments quite fast now. There is a website called “e-devlet” (e-state) -
e-Devlet Kapısı Devletin Kısayolu | www.türkiye.gov.tr . Using your national ID you can reach any information about yourself. You can pay your taxes, look at your social security details, ask a question to the President, follow the current situation of any legal claims you made, look at your entire medical record, apply for driving licence, apply for grants etc… There are more than 3000 different links like these (according to e-devlet website). You can also print most of the documents in your e-state account. Examples include criminal record, social security details, your ancestral tree (some people’s date back to 300 years ago), the details of real estates you own etc. The best part is these documents have a QR code and they are legally verified for their authenticity. So you can use them anywhere you like (visa applications for instance).
Only when there is need for human interaction you need to go to an office. For example in order to get your passport, when there is a problem with your tax payments, when you need to be present yourself for getting a new ID, when you need to notarise buying/selling a car, when you need to make a change in your social security status etc.
General Evaluation
If you pick the right city, have a good job which puts you in middle class or higher -or have savings enough to last your lifetime- , have a good education , can live in a mainly collectivistic culture, and know Turkish, then you will love Turkey (apart from politics, that is a whole other subject).
Otherwise, live in any other developed country and you will be much happier compared to Turkey.
