Ankara - Istanbul High-speed Train

Ankara – Istanbul high speed train is a high speed train in Turkey scheduled to operate on 533 kilometer long Ankara – Istanbul high speed railway from February or March 2014. Currently, Ankara – Eskisehir high speed train is operational and the high speed railway between Istanbul and Turkey is almost completed.

Istanbul is the largest city and the financial, cultural and art center of Turkey. Ankara, the second largest city in Turkey, is the capital city. Ankara – Istanbul route is the busiest route in Turkey currently dominated by private buses and airlines. With the completion of the project, travel time between Ankara and Istanbul will be reduced to only 3 hours and the share of transportation by the railway on the route is expected to jump to 78% from the current 10%. More, Ankara – Istanbul high speed railway will connect to Marmaray which will allow direct train access from Europe to Asia.

I have previously used the existing high speed train line between Ankara and Eskisehir. The train is quite comfortable and offers plugs for your computer in the business section and a comfortable working space. Adding these extras, the travel time between Ankara and Istanbul is more productive with the high speed train. And you do not need to pass through those endless security check queues of the airports which also reduces the total time spent.

Ankara – Istanbul High Speed Train (TCDD HT65000)

Ankara – Istanbul High-speed train starts its journey from the city center of Ankara but the story is different in Istanbul. Unfortunately, the high speed train will not arrive to Haydarpasa Train Station in Kadikoy as many hoped. The train starts its service from Pendik, the eastern most district of Istanbul. From there you will need to transfer to normal train line of Marmaray. There are 9 stops on the Ankara – Istanbul High Speed Rail Line (from Ankara to Istanbul):

• Ankara
• Polatlı,
• Eskişehir
• Bozüyük
• Bilecik
• Pamukova
• Sapanca
• İzmit
• Gebze
• Pendik

It seems like this created disappointment for many in Istanbul. One writer in popular internet site Eksi Sozluk wrote “I congratulate Izmit residents for their new High Speed Train Line” (Although Pendik is a district of Istanbul, it is quite far in the eastern outskirts of city towards city of Izmit).

Ankara – Istanbul High-speed Train is not the only high speed rail project in Turkey. There is a high speed rail line between Ankara and Konya and there are projects to connect Ankara to Samsun, Kars (via Sivas, Erzincan) and even distant cities like Diyarbakir and Antep by high speed train. Turkey expects to have 1500 km high speed train line in 2013 and plans to increase this to 10,000 kilometers in 2023, the 100th birthday of Turkish Republic.

Turkey High Speed Railway Map (completed, underconstruction and planned

More Greeks are emigrating to Turkey for jobs

Because of the severe economic crisis at home, many Greeks are considering emigration but many traditional emigration destinations like United States, Germany, France and United Kingdom are not doing any better. On the other hand neighboring Turkey is growing around 10% every year and seems it is not effected a lot from the European economic crisis yet. And more and more of Greeks are deciding to leave for Turkey. Greek pilots are finding business opportunities in booming Turkish Airlines while academics are taking positions at Turkish universities.

Greek pilot Takis Lagopoulos is one of these new immigrants in Istanbul. has lost his job when Greek Olympic Airways bankrupted, he turned to Turkey for his next job. Booming economy is not the only reason. The way of thinking is very similar in both countries so adaptation to Turkey is much easier. It is also only 1 hour flight away from home. Actually, his hometown is probably nearer to Istanbul than a lot of his Turkish colleagues’. 30 Greek pilots work in Turkish Airlines.

More and more foreigners are heading to Istanbul to look for a job. And more and more of them are Greeks. “Turkey is a rising market with 70+ million population” says Turkish-Greek Business Council Chairman Selim Egeli. “Skilled and well educated Greeks will not have any problem to find a job or start up a new company in Turkey. Turkey’s jobless rate, although high, is far below the Euro-zone average, and is not trending up at the moment.”



Dimitris Triantaphyllou is a Greek teaching in Turkey’s English language Kadir Has University. “A Greek teaching international relations in a Turkish university and running a research center was unthinkable just a decade ago” says Mr. Triantaphyllou “but thinks have changed.”
It is really great to see that the old, stupid and completely artificial hostility between Turkey and Greece fading away. In the past, largely thanks to both countries’ brain washing education systems, people on the opposite sites of beautiful Aegean Sea were in a mini-cold war although they have much more common way of life. Traditional indoctrination against Greeks have been irreversably damaged during the massive 1999 Izmit earthquake when many Turks watched large number of Greek rescuers working in collapsed buildings days and nights looking for survivors:

“Both the official response and dialog and the reactions of the ordinary Greek were given wide coverage almost every day in every newspaper and on every TV channel in Turkey. Incidents such as people bringing in food donations to municipalities in Greece and blood drives in Greece specifically to be sent to earthquake victims in Turkey were highlighted. The emotional language in reporting differed significantly from the usual rhetoric found in both countries—words such as “neighbor”, “true friend” were given in the headlines.”
Source :  Greek–Turkish earthquake diplomacy

It is not only the individual job hunters coming to Turkey. Greek businesses are also looking at their larger neighbour for business opportunities. “Numerious Greek firms for example in the IT Industry, have been investing in Turkey since the crisis started” says Selim Egeli. “While the consumption in Greece has plumped, it is increasing in Turkey”.

So far the number of Greek emigrants to Turkey is estimated to be only several thousands.

Seabird Airlines offers coast to coast flights in Turkey

Seabird Airlines is the only airline in Turkey which is equipped with sea planes capable of landin and taking off from sea and air strips. Seabird Airlines has been established in 2010 by Kürşad Arusan (Founder and Chairman of the Board)[1] and gained necessary permits from Turkish Civil Aviation Authority (SHGM) recently[1].

Sea Bird Airways carried out their first test flight between Alacati-Istanbul in June 2012 and is Turkey’s first and only Air Taxi / Airline company to land and take off from water.

The airline flies from Halic Istanbul to destinations like Bozcaada, Gemlik (Bursa), Alacati (Izmir) and Bodrum. Starting from January 2nd 2014, Seabird Airlines also offers flights from Halic to Kocaeli. The flight will take 22 minutes.

According to Seabird Airlines although Kocaeli is right next to Istanbul, because of the traffic the travel time from European side of Istanbul and Kocaeli is quite long.[3]

Although the airline’s flights were quite popular, they had some problems on their journey in Turkish aviation history. Seabird Airlines has started with one plane which meant that if there was a technical problem with the plane there were no flights (no other airline in Turkey has the same type of plane to temporarily rent).

But now they have 2 planes and a third is on its way so these problems would probably be a matter of the past.

Seabird Airlines destination map

The airline operates DHC-6 Twin Otter, a Canadian 19-passenger STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) utility aircraft, powered by Pratt&Whitney PT6-27 turboprop engines. These planes are capable of landing and taking off from sea and conventional runways. One of the most exiting experience of these flights are their low altitude which allows you to have a close-up view of Turkey which is quite impossible to have with a high flying jet airliner. With low altitude flights, the airline offers a great bird-eye view of Turkey’s coastline with relatively affordable prices. The planes take off and land from the coast and allows passengers to save on time which would be wasted to go to an airport and clear all those security check queues.

Seabird Airlines DHC-6 Twin Otter

Other than scheduled flights, Seabird Airlines also allow you to charter sea planes for group travel. With planes of 19 passangers, you can individually or with a group charter a flight from the airline and fly without restrictions of time and destination. The airline also offers an exiting Istanbul Sightseeing tour from air.

[1] –  Seabird Airlines
[2] –  Sea-plane’s first landing in Halic; DHA General Manager Cebeci on aircraft
[3] – Izmit’e ucak seferi basliyor (Turkish).

New law removes restrictions to foreign purchases of real estate in Turkey

Turkish parliament has just passed a new law which will allow any foreigner to buy property in Turkey. The law removes a restriction called "mutualness" where if a country does not allow Turkish citizens to buy property in that country, this country's citizens could not buy property in Turkey. With the new law, practically will be effective in the next 15 days, this restriction is removed. This will allow Russians, citizens of Gulf States and Central Asia nationals to buy property in Turkey.

This law was supposed to be effective early 2012 but Turkish property developers, who are struggling to sell their mid to high end developments, pressed to release it just before summer, the hottest time for foreign demand for Turkish properties. With this law now, developers will have a very large pool of customers especially from Arab states.

According to Kanal D Property news, Qasim Sultan Al Banna, who has been director general of Dubai Municipality since 1992, has bought 50 flats from a development named My World when the new law is announced.[1] The Developer, Ağaoğlu İnşaat, has already collected deposit from foreigners  for 740 flats in Istanbul even before the law was passed. A company from Saudi Arabia, whose citizens could not buy property in Turkey before, has paid deposit for 400 flats in near Istanbul Olympic Stadium for investment purposes. Agaoglu now expects to earn 250 million dollar when the sales of these reserved units proceed. In fact, the developer targets a whopping 2 billion dollars of real estate sales to foreigners.

My World - Source : My World

Turkey has recently became very popular among its neigbours such as Russia and Arab states. 4 million Russian tourists are expected this year alone, who do not need visa to enter Turkey and stay 1 month. There is also a growing popularity among Muslim countries thanks to popular Turkish TV shows, recent more open and friendly policy of Turkey towards them and cultural similarities. With this rule, money from oil rich Arab states and natural gas rich Russia is expected to flow to Turkey to buy property.

There are mixed forecasts about the effects of this new law on the property prices in Turkey. CEO of Ukra Insaat, Kursad Tuncel, does not see a price rise due to the new demand from foreigners. This is because of the already huge supply in the market. [1] On the other hand, some experts predict 10 per cent rise in property prices when the law becomes effective. But it is pretty much likely that the price fall, which is awaited by many Turkish home buyers, will not happen or will not be as deep as expected.

.[1] - Qasim Sultan My World'den 50 daire aldi