Get your Turkish visa online immediately
Güven Sak, PhD
25 May 2013
Every year, more than 30 million tourists visit Turkey, making it the sixth largest tourist destination in the world (excluding the United States and China) and the fourth largest in Europe. This trend started in the early 1980s with late President Turgut Özal’s tourism drive. Only in 2013 did the Foreign Ministry decide to contribute. Better late than never. The ministry recently opened an online electronic visa (e-visa) facility at which it takes about three minutes to apply and get an e-visa. No more visits to the Turkish consulate. No more paper trail. No more waiting at the airport. Just a few clicks and keystrokes and you have an e-visa!Among the 30 million tourists to enter the country every year, a third are required to have visas. The objective is to turn all visas into
[More]
Our elephant now has company!
Güven Sak, PhD
21 May 2013
Today, the common problem of people rolling in dough is where to invest their money. Turkey paid off its debt to the IMF. Good news? It depends on your perspective. From that of politics, it is new material to serve up to the voters. In technical terms, it is not the most cautious attitude to pay off the lowest-cost debt of a country with a total debt stock of $85 billion. Following Fitch’s decision in December, Moody’s upgraded Turkey to the investment rating. Good news? Also depends on the perspective. Good news if you have a game plan or a sector strategy to attract foreign direct investments. If you are planning to carry on with the current court system and limited patent protection, you can only become a bigger object for portfolio investors in search of new prey. Let me tell you what
[More]
Nous l’avons tant aimée, la révolution égyptienne
Güven Sak, PhD
18 May 2013
Moody’s upgraded Turkey to investment status this week. The same institution downgraded Egypt in March of this year for the sixth time since January 2011, the start of the revolution. That is why the Egyptian revolution nowadays reminds me of the title of Daniel Cohn-Bendit’s biography, roughly translated as “We loved it so much, the Revolution.” Cohn-Bendit did not deny his role in the Paris student revolt of 1968 when explaining his move to a more centrist political position. I wonder whether the Egyptians are of the same opinion when it comes to their revolution. It might have been good, but perhaps it is better to leave revolutionary zeal in the past. They’ve had their fun since January 2011. It’s time to get back to work.I get the same sense of frustration out of the new Pew
[More]
How is Manhattan able to preserve Central Park?
Güven Sak, PhD
17 May 2013
Turkey completed the first stage of the capital accumulation process two centuries after the US. Currently I am reading Helene Wecker’s one and only novel, The Golem and the Jinni. I have to say that it has been a delightful reading adventure. The story takes place in the second half of the nineteenth century. It is about the first immigrants to New York. While reading, I have realized that New York’s giant Central Park enters the story constantly, like one of the characters. Naturally, I have been wondering how Americans built and more importantly have preserved that giant park at the center of Manhattan Island, New York. After all, the park is located in one of the hottest spots of the world, probably worth 2500 dollars per square meter. How, I wondered. Let me tell you how.
[More]
Please don’t forget Dilek Özçelik’s problem
Güven Sak, PhD
14 May 2013
Who do you think might want to prevent Turkey from becoming a high-tech economy? Just take a look at the parliament’s meeting minutes. I have never been able to forget something I once heard from a statesman: that the state is doing a thing well at the time being does not necessarily mean that thing is done right. A problem will transpire eventually, defects unveil. Take the current health policy and the public sector’s drug pricing policy. I have been calling it the legacy of the 1930s for a reason. Let me illustrate my argument with an example and then you decide.
[More]
The end of the beginning in the Kurdish Apertura
Güven Sak, PhD
11 May 2013
Remember the famous words of Winston Churchill right after the first victory against Nazi Germany in the 1942 Battle of Egypt at El Alamein? There was contentment in his voice at the Mansion House on Nov. 10, 1942, but he was also adamant in restraining his happiness. “This is not the end,” he said. “It is not even the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” The military disengagement process that led to the withdrawal of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) armed elements from Turkey may just be the end of the beginning or perhaps the beginning of the beginning in the Kurdish Apertura, take two. It is definitely not the end itself. The current military disengagement process is part and parcel of the confidence building measures needed to start the Kurdish A
[More]
Why can't Izmir become like Barcelona?
Güven Sak, PhD
10 May 2013
It is not the residents of Izmir who decrease the attractiveness of the city. It is Ankara and its ill-designed policies concerning Izmir. Every year in Turkey, around 2.5 million citizens migrate within the country. Domestic migration continues to change the appearance of Turkey. The Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) has been releasing domestic migration statistics since 2008. According to this, domestic migration to Izmir has been slowing down since 2010. The city has been losing its attraction. Why?
[More]
Moving ministry buildings uptown is a bad idea
Güven Sak, PhD
07 May 2013
Apart from the environmental factors, the implications of moving ministries to the suburbs for democracy are worth noting. Have you ever thought of the behavior patterns of Turks? Let me start for you. The people of Turkey, regardless of their ethnic origins, prefer discussing the problems of the country over discussing those of their neighborhood. Is it because the institutional infrastructure of the country is distorted more than that of the neighborhood? I don’t know the reason, but this is the obvious fact. Today let me talk about a tendency visible in Ankara, based on my observations of my neighborhood.
[More]
Turkish Cypriots need a vision
Güven Sak, PhD
04 May 2013
Turkish Cypriots are much like us in many ways, yet different. I was in Girne the other day and was a little late to pick up the car from its parking place. It was around 11:30 p.m., mind you. Not that late. But the parking place was closed already. Well, closed is a relative term. Everybody working there had gone home, but they left the doors open for the convenience of latecomers such as myself. This was not a garage in an obscure part of the island, but just inside Girne, close to all those restaurants and casinos. Tourism is the bread and butter of Girne, yet the owners of the parking lot grant you free parking if it gets too late for them, not for you. I wonder at what hour of the day they expect to make money in that place. Let me tell you one thing: That never happens in
[More]
Cyprus gives hints of Turkey’s future
Güven Sak, PhD
03 May 2013
Turkey has to reduce the authority of either the prime minister or the president. Otherwise, what has happened on the Island will happen here. I will not write about the administrative impotence Istanbul demonstrated on May Day, which made the city look like Damascus or Aleppo in the eyes of the entire world. I did not want to write about the clashes in a heat. Instead, I want to talk about another sentimental reaction, the article on the direct election for the presidency. That article is a big problem for us. Turkey has an ongoing presidential system issue. Let me tell you how.
[More]
