About Turkey

Turkey is spectacularly beautiful. It boasts one of the most stunning coastlines in the Med, as well as a wonderfully scenic mountainous geography.

Turkey has "depth". You will find that history has touched every inch of this country, giving it a deeper meaning than simply a geographic beauty. Also, the cultural diversity is in the character of the architecture and the society, which makes each region special.

Turkish people are friendly and hospitable, are easy going people and the society is very used to hosting foreigners with 17 million tourists a year.

Living expenses in Turkey are low. The costs are nowhere comparable to those in Western Europe, which means your savings can go much further while still being able to afford a much more luxurious lifestyle than that at home.

Turkey is near by. Flight times to Istanbul, Dalaman, Antalya and Bodrum International Airports from main hubs in Europe are no more than a few hours, making Turkey readily accessible to you and anyone who you may choose to host.

Cuisine
Turkish cuisine inherited its Ottoman heritage which could be described as a fusion and refinement of Turkic, Arabic, Persian and Greek cuisines. Ottomans fused various culinary traditions of their realm, with influences from Middle Eastern cuisines, along with traditional Turkic elements from Central Asia such as Yogurt. As a result, the Ottoman Empire created a vast array of very technical dishes. Furthermore, it can be observed that various regions of the Ottoman Empire contain bits and pieces of the vast Ottoman dishes.

The best flavoured white cheeses and yogurt are prepared from sheep milk. Although rice, which is called pilav, is the essential side dish of many foods, bulgur pilavı (prepared from pounded wheat: bulgur which is used in a number of Turkish specialities) can also be used for the same purpose.

Frequently used ingredients in Turkish dishes include eggplant, green pepper, onion, lentil, bean, tomato, garlic, and cucumber. Grape, apricot, cherry, melon, fig, lemon, pistachio, pine nut, almond, hazelnut, watermelon, and walnut are among the most abundantly used fruits and nuts. As the variety can be observed in the Spice Bazaar (Mısır Çarşısı), spices have a special place in the Turkish cuisine. Preferred spices and herbs are parsley, cumin, pepper, paprika, mint, oregano and thyme.

Climate
Surely one of the main attractions of Turkey is its wonderful climate. Like most areas of the Mediterranean, Turkey has over 300 sunny days a year, and with over 1,500 kilometres of Mediterranean coastline, it’s the perfect place to enjoy long, lazy days on the beach.

In the Mediterranean and Aegean regions, the summers are hot and dry and the winters are short, warm and mild, with most of the rainfall taking place only from November to February. As the summer temperature is around 86°-105° F (30°- 40° C) and usually above 50° F (10° C) in the winter, you can comfortably swim and sail in these turquoise-coloured waters for nine months of the year.

And that’s not all … because Turkey has inland mountain ranges, the country can offer a wonderful variety of climates. Imagine being able to ski the snowy mountain peaks in the morning and swim and laze around on the beach in the afternoon.

Education
The Turkish education system was restructured in 1997 to meet the needs of this thriving, rapidly developing country. All children between the ages of three and five can go to pre-school, with primary school education being given to all children between from the ages of six and 14. All education is compulsory and free of charge in state schools.

All children who have completed primary school can then apply for secondary education which takes a further three years. After this, some 1.5 million students apply to enter Turkish universities every year and around 250,000 of them pass the demanding examinations.

To cater for the needs of the many foreign residents who are now living in Turkey, a number of international schools have opened where English is spoken and there is also a specialist disabled school which is free and open 24 hours a day.