Ten Reasons Why I Like Turkey

Turkey's Capital, Ankara, as Seen From an Overlooking Castle


1.) Turks are honest, courteous, and hospitable. They go beyond the call of duty to be helpful.

2.) Turkish food is fantastic. Their open bazaars (produce markets) offer tasty fresh food that shames what we buy at Sams or even Trader Joes.

3.) The nation is modernizing but is still resisting the negative features of Western life. Their young people still seem wholesome, innocent, and respectful.

4.) Turkish neighborhoods are relationally driven with family-owned stores for everything within a 1-3 minute walk. People have time for each other and are often seen having tea with their posse of friends at a cafe, or on the sidewalk just outside their place of business.

5.) National life is family-based and multigenerational, with little room for a "youth culture" where teenagers and twenty-somethings stay in their pajamas til 10 am, skate board or video game half the day, and avoid older people like the plague. Older men and women are fully integrated into the life of all age groups, and honored.

6.) Turkey is a visually majestic land, clear evidence of the goodness of the Creator. See my daughter Christina's short video at the end of this post.

7.) You don't need a car to get around.

8.) Everything costs less. Housing offers a 60% discount over US prices, including rentals.

9.) Turkey may be a secular democracy, but most of the people have retained a sense of reverence for God and upright ethics at a level absent in Western nations.

10.) The sense of history comes right up through your feet anywhere you stand. The land is ancient and has witnessed Herodotus' narratives, Hadrian's legions, and Polycarp's martyrdom, not to mention Ataturk's smackdown of Churchhill's troops. The archeology is limitless. Visit Turkey and be changed.