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    Would every Syrian asylum seeker become another Naim Süleymanoğlu?
    10 November 2015
    All the news stories over the past few months stir our emotions. Emotions take the lead in the debates on the current state of affairs in the country. Syrians rank high among the critical issues reigned by emotions. We face a migratory influx comprising millions of people that leave their homes behind and go seek a new life that promises safety and possibly higher welfare. The government spokesperson said a few days ago that there are 2.2mn Syrians in Turkey. This migration flow started in 2011. We assumed back then that the inflow was temporary and the neighbors we hosted would return home once the situation in Syria was normalized. But as we approach the end of 2015, the dominant viewpoint today is that Syria will never recover to its old self, that millions have lost their homes into th [More]
    Why do Turks distrust one another?
    10 July 2015
    Could Turkey ever be ruled by a coalition? This was the question on everyone’s minds in the last couple of months. I believe that the answer to this question lies in the magical phenomenon that we call “trust.” If the parties can trust one another, a coalition will work out; otherwise, the system will hit an impasse. It’s a straightforward way of reasoning: Just as spouses who distrust one another can’t work out their marriage, just as two partners who distrust one another cannot manage their company together, two or three parties that distrust one another will unfortunately fail to form a coalition and rule the country. [More]
    Why is Turkey an odd country?
    17 April 2013
    Our country’s agenda gets so odd at times that one inevitably wonders if such things happen in other places as well. Are we one of a kind? Is there any other country that has suffered from terrorism and high inflation for 30 years? Do they sentence their star pianists to prison for re-tweeting poems? Are the sidewalks of any other capital city, governed by the same mayor for 19 years, falling apart as they are in Ankara? Is what’s happening around us the normal flow of human history, or are we experiencing things that are peculiar to Turks? [More]
    Is the 2023 Vision Represented by Çukurambar?
    01 April 2013
    Do you know the Çukurambar neighborhood in Ankara? Those living in here will know it, but it would seem familiar to many others, too. It is a slum in the middle of the city that underwent urban transformation in the last decade. The former jerry-built houses were replaced by tall buildings, some of which are luxurious and others ultra-luxurious. Since TEPAV lies only 5 minutes away from this odd neighborhood, we have been watching how Çukurambar has been transformed during the years of Turkey’s economic transformation. While we were discussing the country's middle-income trap, we witnessed how a nearby neighborhood climbed from low-income to high-income status, skipping the middle-income trap. [More]
    An Uber-Crazy Project Proposal for Istanbul: Relocating the Bosphorus
    19 January 2013
    We haven’t heard much of the so-called “the crazy project” for Istanbul since the general election of 2011. I would like to present my humble contributions to its fulfillment, just in case it is still in the works. My goal: to make the crazy project even crazier. [More]
    So Ali Ağaoğlu is Turkey’s Zuckerberg, eh?
    05 November 2012
    A couple of months ago I asked why none of the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world lived in Turkey [1], but I have lately realized that Turkey does have a class of young [2] dollar-billionaire entrepreneurs. So I would like to say a couple of things about Ali Ağaoğlu’s entrepreneurship. The contractor and self proclaimed “architect of life" recently has become a social phenomenon through his advertisement campaigns. I think his story gives us a better understanding of Turkey. [More]
    $25,000 GDP per capita in 2023: Are we dreaming?
    04 June 2012
    Turkey’s GDP per capita reached $10,000 in 2011, finally surpassing the five-digit threshold. The next goal is to reach $25,000 by 2023.[1] We have 11 years to go. Can we really make it? Please check the chart below to see where we are currently. The chart shows GDP per capita in countries with populations over 10 million (that is 84 countries[2]) for the last six decades. The data is difficult to examine, as there are 5160 different cells in the figure. Each row represents a country and each column represents a year. Yellow cells indicate that the GDP per capita of a country in the corresponding year was below $10,000. Red cells indicate a GDP per capita between $10,000 and $15,000, while green cells mark per capita income between $15,000 and $25,000. Countries in the pink are best positi [More]
    Turkish urbanization is the enemy of Turkish football
    21 May 2012
    There are two types of countries: Those where the police and football fans fight tooth and nail, and the other calm ones. Turkey and England are in the first group; both love football. There is a subcategory among these countries: those that have large green fields in their cities where children and young people can play football and those where the game is played only on artificial turfs by paunchy middle-aged men. Here, England is in the first group while Turkey is in the second. [More]
    Do Turks Prefer Urban Land Over Savings?
    07 May 2012
    Our weak savings performance is perhaps the only issue upon which economists watching Turkey agree. Among them, some consider low savings as driven by low growth, and state that when other factors limiting growth are eliminated, the savings ratio will improve on its own.[1] Others argue that low savings is the main cause of low growth, and thus improving savings is the precondition for improving growth. [2] I don’t know which one is my position yet, but I am ever more convinced that there is a causal relationship between the unplanned urbanization in Turkey and the savings rate problem, and thus, growth. Today I would like to state three observations on this causality. [More]
    If you can’t teach them English, let them have iPads
    24 April 2012
    I learned German in a Turkish public school. I took elective courses for five years, starting in the seventh grade. Today all I can say in German is “Ich spreche Deutch nicht.” [1] Needless to say, my German skills did not open any doors. Thank God I accidentally learned English and had the chance to connect with the rest of the world. If my failure to learn German has taught me anything, it is that there is a large number of people in Turkey who think they can speak English (or say that they can on their CVs), but are no better at the language than I am at German. [More]