Turkey voted top country

Turkey has been chosen by Condé Nast Traveller readers as their favourite country in the destination category at the Condé Nast Traveller 12th Annual Readers’ Travel Awards for the first time.

 

Turkey’s popularity also ensures a spot in prestigious The World’s Top 100 list too where it was voted number 2 overall.

 

Istanbul, European Capital of Culture 2010 also scored highly; Istanbul was voted in the top 10 in the Overseas Cities category (5th place), with top marks for people / hospitality.

 

The city is also home to some of the readers’ favourite hotels as the Ciragan Palace Kempinski was voted in 6th place and The Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at Sultanahmet, 13th place in the Category of Overseas Leisure Hotels.  The Ritz Carlton Istanbul also secured 8th spot in the Overseas Business Hotels category.

 

Director of the Turkish Culture and Tourism Office UK Irfan Onal expressed his delight at winning the award: “We are thrilled that Turkey has won this prestigious award, which is even more meaningful given that it is chosen by the readers themselves.  This is the highlight in what has been a very successful year as the Turkish Culture and Tourism Office UK.

Indeed, visitor numbers from the UK continue their spectacular rise, with year-on-year figures up 15.5% for the first 7 months of this year.”

 

Turkish Ambassador H.E Mr. Unal Cevikoz received the country award. Also attending the award was the Ambassador’s wife Mrs. Emel Cevikoz, Director of the Turkish Culture and Tourism Office, Mr. Irfan Onal and Deputy Director, Dr. Aysegul Gurgezoglu.

 

 

Source: www.ftnnews.com

Bodrum: Cultural Heart of Eastern Europe

Turkey, a country rich with exquisite cultural heritage, houses one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the magnificent Mausoleum of Mausolus. The monument, situated in the stunning coastal city of Bodrum in southwest Turkey was impressively constructed to house the tomb of Mausolus, ancient ruler of Caria.

The name “Mausoleum”, describing the monument enclosing a burial chamber, actually originated from the original edifice in Bodrum. Its majestic, temple-like structure, decorated with reliefs and statuary on a massive base, stood resiliently for 1700 years until it was eventually devastated by earthquakes. Today, you can still visit the foundations and several pieces of sculpture that remain from the immense memorial.

Crusaders, arriving in Bodrum in the 15^th Century, transformed the remains of the Mausoleum into the remarkable Bodrum Castle. Still standing today, the stunning castle overlooks the harbour and the International Marina and visitors flock to the Museum of Underwater Archaeology that is accommodated in its grounds. As one of the finest examples of Crusader architecture in Eastern Europe, the stunning fortress hosts many cultural festivals throughout the year.

The Bodrum peninsula features a notably prevalent artistic and intellectual recent history, providing secondary residence to many artists, poets and singers. A variety of European expats have been attracted to the area due to its ideal climate, luxurious yet relaxed lifestyle and extremely high investment potential. As well as foreign investment, Turkish nationals are also eager to acquire holiday villas in the region and take part in the ever-popular leisure activities that Bodrum’s supreme location offers, including yachting, water sports and golf. The immense and heavenly coastline, with miles of beaches, bays and coves to discover, make every voyage peaceful and enjoyable.

Accessing the area is progressively easier since Bodrum boasts both an international and a domestic airport that receive daily flights from across Europe.

Climate and Landscape

Turkey is a transcontinental nation covering an area of 783,562 square kilometres (300,948 sq mi) making it the world’s 37th-largest country, about the size of Metropolitan France and the United Kingdom combined. In the west the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits separate Europe from Asia and then the country stretches east towards Mt. Ararat and the Middle East. This means the climate and landscape in Turkey can vary vastly depending on your location.

It is encircled by seas on three sides; the Aegean Sea to the west, the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south and also contains the Sea of Marmara in the northwest. Turkey’s varied landscapes are the product of complex earth movements that have shaped the region over thousands of years and still manifest themselves in fairly frequent earthquakes today.

Turkey is a very mountainous country split into seven regions each with distinct contrasts manifested in its landform regions, climate, soils, and vegetation. Mountains inland from the Aegean, Mediterranean and Black seas encompass a high inland Anatolian plateau which becomes increasingly rugged as it progresses eastward.

Turkey has no general overall climate as it is drastically different depending on where you are and what time of the year it is. During the winter, central and eastern areas experience snow and temperature lows of -30C while summers near the southwest Syrian border reach well over 40C.

The Aegean and Mediterranean coasts in the south west are a lot more pleasant, with mild wet winters and hot sunny summers that climb into the high 30’s during July and August they provide an ideal climate for living all year round. If you travel around these regions you will find vast pines forest on the hills and mountains with agricultural plantations on the flatter land and many beautiful beaches.

Visas and Permits

When coming to Turkey, whether it is for a week on holiday or to live after buying property as a British and EU citizen you are required to get a visa.

Upon entering the country will have to purchase a sticker type tourist visa. These cost £10 (or €15-$20) per person and is paid in cash before going through passport control, make sure you have the exact money in notes (change is not given and coins are not accepted). Your tourist visa will be stamped with the date you entered the country allowing you to stay in the country for up to 90 days; during this time you can come and go as often as you like.

If you are planning on staying more the 90 days there are two different ways of extending your stay. Many people who wish to stay in the country for longer head over to one of the nearby Greek islands for the day. Kos is only 1 hour away from Bodrum by ferry, during the summer they depart everyday and during the winter (November-April) the travel 3 times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Tickets cost approximately 55TL (as of March 2009) and when you re-enter Turkey you can purchase another 90 day visa. There is no limit to the number of times you can do this but beware that staying once your visa has expired will incur a hefty fine.

If you are planning on staying in the country for long periods or for work you should apply for a residency visa. This can be done by either; applying through the Consulate General when you are in the UK, this must be done at least eight weeks before the intended date of departure; or you can apply while in Turkey. It is easier and cheaper to apply whilst in Turkey and you can apply at the nearest police headquarters after your 90 day tourist visa expires. This may seem like a daunting task but if you are a Cumberland Properties customer our after sales team is happy to help you with your application. For details on the costs and what documents you require for a residency visa please check the Turkish Consulate

If you are wishing to work in Turkey then you should apply at the Consulate General and will require a letter of job offer or employment contract on which the application could be based since work permit applications are always for a specific position and they are employer driven.

Applications should be made simultaneously by both you and your employer and can take up to 2 months or longer though you can usually start work while the application is being processed. Also you are also expected to get a residence permit within 30 day’s of entry.

Visas & Passports

• In general, visitors to Turkey need a visa.
• Visas may be obtained at the Turkish diplomatic representation outside Turkey.
• In most cases, a passport must be valid for at least 3 additional months from the date of entry to Turkey.
• EU citizens do not need a visa but a sticker-type entry visa must be obtained at the point of entry for a fee of £10-€15-$20
• There is an additional group of countries whose citizens may stay in Turkey on presentation of a passport only, without a visa, for a period of 1 - 3 months.

Residential Permits

• Residential permits for foreign residents are granted for a period of up to two years, with an option to extend.
• Separate residential permits must be obtained for the spouse and children of a foreign worker.

Work Permits

• Foreign residents who are interested in working in Turkey must obtain a work permit.
• A work permit may be obtained, subject to an investigation to ensure that the worker is skilled, and has no criminal record.
• The Turkish employer must deal with obtaining a work permit before the arrival of the employee.
• A work permit is usually valid for two years, with an option to extend.

History of Turkey

Whether you are just coming on holiday or planning to buy property in Turkey it is always nice to know a little about the history of your host country. Here is a concise guide to the last 10,000 years.

Turkey or Anatolia, as the area was known in ancient times, has a fascinating history and its location between Europe and Asia makes it one of the oldest continually inhabited regions in the world. If you travel around you will find archaeological ruins and architectural treasures left over from successive civilisations like the Hittite city of Hattuşaş and the Library of Celcus at Ephesus to the Byzantine cathedral Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Two of the wonders of the ancient world were situated in Turkey and the legendary city of Troy the centre of the Trojan War and there are hundreds of smaller sites scattered all across the countryside, even Bodrum has its own antique theatre and the ruins of the “Mausoleum of Maussollos”.

The story begins at Çatalhöyük where excavations found Neolithic settlements that date back almost 10,000 years; these were some of the first real communities of people and the rise of farming, domesticated animals and use of metal tools. Moving into the early Bronze Age, Akkadian’s and Assyrian’s exerted some influence but Anatolia was soon to become one of the busiest bits of real estate around.
Hittles, Persians, Greeks and Romans
The first major empire in Anatolia was that of the Hittites in the late Bronze Age from the 18th to the 13th century BCE who built up a civilisation rivalling that of the Egyptians and Babylonians before a gradual decline and collapse. Various civilisations arose from the old Hittite Empire in the 12th century BCE with the kingdoms of Lydia, Phrygia and Urartu each claiming a part of Anatolia while the Ionian Greeks settled the west coast giving birth to the great cities of Colophon, Smyrna and Ephesus. In the west the kingdom of Lydia captured or made agreements with the Greek cities and over time incorporated Phrygia into its domain while in the east The Urartu kingdom was conquered by the Median Empire. This all came to an abrupt end when in the 6th and 5th centuries everyone was conquered by the great Persian Achaemenid Empire.
In 334 BCE Alexander the Great created a huge army which swept across the peninsula destroying the Persians and spreading Greek rule. Upon Alexander’s death his empire was broken up and Anatolia divided into a number of small Hellenistic kingdoms which by the mid-1st century BCE had all succumbed to Rome. Under Roman rule Anatolia enjoyed a period of relative peace that allowed it to grow and prosper and in 324 CE, the Roman emperor Constantine I chose Byzantium to be the new capital of the Roman Empire, renaming it New Rome (later Constantinople and Istanbul). As the Western Roman Empire fell into decline the Eastern Roman Empire, known by historians as the Byzantine Empire, survived and Anatolia remained under its control for another 700 years.
The Turks and the Ottomans
The House of Seljuk was a branch of Turkic peoples who resided on the edge of the Muslim world and around the 10th century began migrating from their ancestral homelands towards the eastern regions of Anatolia. These eventually became the new homeland of the Turkic tribes and by 1071 marked the end of Roman control. In 1243, the Seljuk armies were defeated by the Mongols and the power of another empire slowly disintegrated. In its wake, one of the Turkish principalities evolved into the Ottoman Empire, thus filling the void left by the Seljuks and Byzantines.
The Ottoman Empire interacted with both Eastern and Western cultures throughout its 623-year history and in the 16th and 17th centuries it was among the world’s most powerful political entities. Spanning three continents, controlling much of South-eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa it was in many respects, an Islamic successor to the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. Following years of decline, the Ottoman Empire entered World War I through the Ottoman-German Alliance in 1914, and was ultimately defeated. After the war, the victorious Allied Powers sought the dismemberment of the Ottoman state through the Treaty of Sèvres.
Ataturk and the Republic
The occupation of İstanbul and İzmir by the Allies in the aftermath of World War I led to the establishment of the Turkish national movement under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Pasha, a military commander who had distinguished himself during the Battle of Gallipoli. The Turkish War of Independence was waged with the aim of revoking the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres and by September 18, 1922 the occupying armies were repelled. The country saw the birth of the new Turkish state and on November 1, the newly founded parliament formally abolished the Sultanate, thus ending 623 years of Ottoman rule. The Treaty of Lausanne led to the international recognition of the sovereignty of the newly formed “Republic of Turkey” as the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, and the republic was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923, in the new capital of Ankara.
Mustafa Kemal became the republic’s first president and subsequently introduced a broad range of swift and sweeping reforms - in the political, social, legal, economic, and cultural spheres - with the aim of founding a new secular republic from the remnants of its Ottoman past. According to the Law on Family Names, the Turkish parliament presented Mustafa Kemal with the honorific name “Atatürk” (Father of the Turks).
Atatürk is a hero to the Turks; during his 15 years of presidency he set the country on a path to realising a new future. By the time of his death, Turkey was already becoming an industrial society on the Western European model and many regions had some sort of viable economic security. Today, his achievements are a legacy to the modern state and many see Turkey’s eventual ascension to the EU as the ultimate achievement of Atatürk’s dreams.
He died in 1938 and if you are in the country on the 10th of November, a minutes silence is observed for the “Father of the Turks”.

« Önceki Sayfa — Sonraki Sayfa »