Just come back from a stay in mainland Turkey.

[sophie]

For those who don't know, Adana is 5th or 6th largest city in Turkey and certainly not where thousands would go for their holidays and is predominantly business orientated. It is amazing to see the difference in Turkey and KKTC when it comes to reaction from the population on the present concerns.

1. The people appear to be pragmatic as to cost of living and carry on, and are not continually rising prices. It is staggering low at the moment (not alcohol of course). Electrical goods, kitchen equipment etc have hardly changed in price at all. Clothes etc and eating out are still the enormous bargains they have always been,

2. Shops are full and people are "spending" Huge Shopping Malls are packed and people are not just wandering around to pass the time.

3. There appears to be many foreign business men and women visiting the country and business hotels and conference halls are in full swing. We met Yorkshire, Americans, Germans, Russians and of course Turkish business people from other parts of the Country.

4. Politics are forefront in the Turkish papers (plus the English versions of Turkish) and of course the TV news is the same. However, who beat who at the football can just be as important.

5. One political analyst I read ( won't mention his name or paper) was somewhat scathing re KKTC. His opinion, is that the KKTC is run by four political parties, who are uneducated, unworldly, inexperienced in politics and other remarks.. They should realise (his thoughts not mine) that the 200Million Dollars minimum donated by Turkey might not always be available so that what they do receive should spend it wisely. (paraphrased)

Of course, things might be considerably different in the country areas with horrible poverty but there does appear to be a lot of well tendered farms from what we could see from the train and from the plane.

Its interesting to see ones home from a totally different angle and approach though.

[Reyntj]

I think you will find as 95 % of the media is controlled by the state in adana nobody has told them yet thatbthe economy is screwed. Go back in 6 months and see the state of play then . If you watch something like trt news you woukdnt even know the lira had just crashed 40 % against the dollar . And yes the news is using anything like football results as a distraction .

Did you vists hotic the shoe shop in the mall? No because its gone bust because of the lira its was one of turkeys biggest shoe shops .the news was Hardly covered in turkey . I appreciate your just commenting on what you saw but all is not what it seems . Our relatives in istanbul are panicking because like most they have big tl mortgages and are worried about not being able to service their debt .

The boom in turkey has been built on property . Now with interest rates at 24 % thatss about to come to an abrupt end .my wifes brother just got laid off in antalya and with unemployment already at 10 % and about to get a lot worse isnt hopeful about quickly finding a new job .

In general with a population here of expats and london turks the locals here are much more aware of whats going on than the people of turkey who mostly digest the goverment supplied version of events .

[Keithcaley]

I'll second the Vote of Thanks to Sophie - very interesting!

Rent - I understood your comments, apart from the difficulty in servicing TL Mortgages. Why would TL Mortgages be a problem (as long as they remained in employment) ? - wouldn't Euro/Dollar/Sterling Mortgages be the problem, rather than TL?

I can appreciate that they would be in difficulty without employment, but that that is another matter surely?

[Reyntj]

https://tradingeconomics.com/turkey/interest-rate

Hi kieth check out the above graph.

Garanti are now offering a 5 year fix at 30 % interest......for tl mortgages

Akbank are offering an effective interest rate on a 10 year homr loan of 42 % apr....

Need. i. Say more

Yes business with $ loans are in trouble to . But interest rates have gone up from c 7% to 24 % ....effective mortgage rates even higher . People who dont have fixed rates or credit card debt or need to refinance will face great increases in payments .

House prices kept going up and up in istanbul . Anyone living in the uk will know what happens . People get greedy and borrow as much as they can its human nature so they dont miss the boat . apparently theres million of unsold homes in turkey in all these new developments . Would you buy in a falling market with a mortgage at 42 % apr ....

This is the main reason erdogan wants lower interst rates as the big builders who are his supporters are going to be in deep trouble .

[sophie]

I'm perfectly aware of the state of play regarding state radio, TV and the Press but there is only so much that you can hide from the general population of Turkey. They are not stupid and they are not panicking. I take on board the subject of mortgage though. Food shops, particularly fresh ae just a fraction of the prices charged here, cafes and restaurants are far less than KKTC. The Greed Factor is not apparent in any sector in fact we met nothing but kindness and generosity (except for one driver, who I was delighted to discovered could speak English and looked suitably chastened)

The main crux of my remarks were those made and published by a well respected and well known Political Analyst and his views on the appalling and totally wasteful way in which the Government here are running things (do I mean running or do I mean hiding under the duvet with yet another begging bowl on the table waiting to be filled) Probably the latter. I come back to see the headlines in C2T, regarding yet further upcoming crises. The country hops from crises to crises.

And yet the country you appear to deride has a superb public transport system. Streets (at least in the area we were, are cleaned every other night, trains resemble the Swiss, German or Dutch system i.e. they run literally to the minute, are spotless and seating is identical to airline style with DVT protectors and far greater leg room. We watched a very amusing black and white film about the Gold Rush i.e. 64 mile trip cost me 9.00tl return. From say, Girne to Gaza Magusa, there would be 12 a day to fit in with working hours. If there are any price rises, then they are minimal and no more than one would expect.

If I was in a position to be able to sell our house here, would I move to Turkey...……….. you BETCHA. Will have to improve my language skills though.

[Reyntj]

Im sorry sophie but i disagree entirely with your first comments about the general population of turkey . You only have to look at the conspiracies they peddle in the press . Theres still vast swathes of turkey who believe everything they read .if theres an earthquake they blame the usa for instance. The ramifications of the fall in the lira havent hit yet and they are not beng flagged up to the population . 1 month ago the lira was 6.50 tl to the pound now its c 8.30 and has been over 8.80 tl . As rents in places like kyrenia are mostly been paid in £ and even imports from turkey are transacted in $ this has a massive effect on people here who are paid in tl these are factors which you seem to be ignoring and are the reason there is a much bigger problem here already . If people in adana where paying rent in £ and having into import everything and paying in dollars things might not be so superb. Not to forget the small matter of being unrecognised and embargoed worldwide which is a slight hinderance.....

Turkey has always been cheaper than here . If you go to any small economy and island you will find prices always higher because they dont have industries and economies of scale and everything has to be imported which costs money eg iceland and jersey for example. Adana has a population of 1.7 million so its no wonder its transport system is better than here.

The grass is always greener there is pros and cons here for living in the mainland . My biggest concerns about living in turkey would be regarding security - crime refugess terrorism mafia police etc etc .

[niceone]

My biggest concern would be the cost of the beer

[amelia]

Very well explained Reyntj

Sophie you may wish to take a look at this article : Plus the comments !

https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/origin ... Newsletter

[sophie]

It never ceases amaze me that so many people who live here, be they Turkish Cypriots or who ever, seem to spend their time completely knocking the very country that keeps them afloat. Both financially or politically. Every time something bad happens its always " It must be a mainlander what done it" Take away the support of Turkey and the North would sink without trace. It's bankrupt even with the support of Turkey, heaven only knows what it would be like without. Think of it, no roads, no nothing. It must be very galling and I agree it must hurt ones pride to have to admit this fact, and no one seems to want to do so,

I have read the article and the comments, which are not as one sided as you lead to believe, There is a truism which goes something like "like taxes, the poor will always be with us" Please excuse me if I have misquoted. The article and comments also refer to Credit Card Debt per head of population. Are you aware of the UK rates. I have never heard of a Food Bank operating in Turkey either and health queues don't appear to be as long. I have to admit I only used a Turkish hospital once and that was a Charity run establishment.

However, none of this detracts from my point that people here are continually biting the hand that feeds them and I believe they are making a big mistake.

[Reyntj]

You need to wake up to the reality . Its nothing to do with bashing its the facts of the current state of affairs . Just look at the the tl rate today its 8.47 as i write and thats having increased ratex to 24 % ! ! The rally was very short lived ! Whats the point of stating everythings superb and rosey when it clearly is not . Erdogan could solve this situation in the trnc if he wanted but he has his own agenda and trnc is a pawn on the chess board . Invading was a political move back in 1974 and trnc is still being used as a political pawn .

And whose bashing who here ? Its seems hypocritical of you to say people are bashing turkey when all your post are bashing the country you live in and its politicians ! You havent mentioned the name of the so called expert “bashing” trnc politicians but my guess its probably someone with an agenda probably a turkish nationalist who wants to annex turkey and send us all to the mosque .

And be careful what you wish for if trnc followed the politicians in turkey and changed the law as they have so that all property transactions are in tl you would probably find your house value would halve in value over nght.

[sophie]

I think that we'll leave this and agree to differ. BTW, Hotic the shoe giant since 1938 hasn't gone bankrupt, but they have filed for Bankruptcy Protection - very sensible of them. I saw two of their shops in Shopping Malls. The general consensus from outsiders being that it is NOT the current financial problem which has caused this situation, but the Companies reluctance to approach globalisation. They have, what is considered by traders, a dying strategy of continually opening more physical stores which has and will continue to be a real problem for them. They haven't taken E commerce seriously enough and they will go under if they don't change. According to a number of Turkish freelancers, there are quite a number of other large Turkish companies who are not keeping up with the times re E commerce and could find themselves in the same situation. Once again I think we should agree to differ on this one as well. OK?

[Reyntj]

Ive no idea who fed you that flanel about hotic but heres what the director said at the bankruotcy petition :Because of the recent shortage of cash flow in the market and the interest rates increasing to a level that could not be foreseen due to excessive depreciation of the Turkish lira, our company has been facing problems in its short term payments,” Alihan Hotiç, the CEO of the company said in his press statement.

I think your nit picking about the exact position of the bankruptcy because everuthing else you have said is flawed. Hotic like many other turkish firms have a mountain of foreign exchang debt that they cant refinance and pay. Thats the facts . These freelance journalists and outsiders are going to blame the wave of pending bankruptcies on companies not keeping up with the times...?! and nothing to do with the the massive foreign debt and depreciating currency and the economy going into recession .so thats what the akp party are going to do any company that goes bust the state owned media will either ignore it as they did with hotic or offer an “alternative news” about how bad the company was and its nothing to do with the way thy have run the country.

Have you been brain washed?

[Reyntj]

I had to google where you where getting your info from as i was intrugued and i found the “ blog “ after a while ...
https://www.wordapp.com/wordapp-blog/
A one off blog by a website who offer translation services and writing comtent service! exactly the type of company you might employ to write blogs to your own requests........

Heres a quick snippet from theirvwebsite “Find out how to send the right message to your audience through content,“

I couldnt find anything else from outsiders or other freelancers corroborating this theory to support the general consensus you claim - all the other mainstream media said it was because of the lira etc !

If you want to believe a blog by a turkish bloke or the rest of the non turkish main stream media i know which i would choose and yes we agree to differ . Ok ?