TURKEY SPORTS

Turkey has much to offer for the visitors, its geography and climate offer a wide range of opportunities to practice any sport and activities to do.

Sailing

Bordered by four seas, the Black Sea, Marmara Sea, Aegean Sea and Mediterranean Sea, Turkey offers a great opportunity to enjoy of cruising by the seas and at the same time appreciating of the plethora of archeological sites, castles and temples around the coasts. There are many cruising charters available.

Gulets, before used for fishing and transportation, now are very popular to make journeys. Best Gulets are built in Marmaris and Bodrum.

Scuba Diving

Turkey along its coasts and especially in the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts offer great places to dive. Despite that Scuba diving in turkey is relatively new it is developing rapidly. Its coastline abounds with sheltered coves, bays and uninhabited islands, rich and varied marine life, numerous reefs, majestic rock formations, curious caves and sharp drop-offs.

There are special requirements for foreign divers, they should have official documentation of their qualification, training and must be accompanied, when diving, by a licensed Turkish guide. The limit for diving with diving gear is 30 meters. To dive exceeding 30 meters they must do it with the proper diving and medical equipment

Kas in the Lycian coast is the most popular place for scuba diving. It offers clear water with visibilities up to 40 meters, comfortable water temperature of 25-28 degrees and its possible to see underwater canyons, shipwrecks, caves, bizarre reefs.

Bodrum is another great place to dive in. There are sheltered seas with visibility average of 20 meters, water temperatures range from 17 - 22°C during the season which extends from mid April to late October.

Rafting & Canoeing

Although, Turkey is not well-known as good place to rafting, in fact there are some excellent rivers that provide perfect conditions for canoeing and rafting; both for professionals and rookies. Some of the best rivers for rafting are: Coruh, Barhal, Berta, Firtina, Colak, Koprucay, Manavgat, Dragon, Goksu (Silifke), Zamanti, Goksu (Feke), Kizilirmak and Dalaman Cayi.

The river Coruh in the Kackar Mountains in northeastern Turkey is readily acknowledged as one of the world’s top ten for rafting. Its origin is in the province of Bayburt and flows for 250 km to terminate in the Black Sea. 4th World Water sports Championships was held here in 1993 with approximately 300 competitors from 28 countries. The Coruh River is best for rafting from May to September and the prime months are May and June.

Fishing

Turkey has plenty fishing areas especially in the Aegean and Mediterranean seas. Fishing can be done without a license in some non-restricted areas and just by amateurs. To get more details concerning fishing zones, the permissions and rules can be obtained from the Department of Fisheries at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

Football

Turkey in the last decades has been experimented a great development in a number of sports especially with football. Football is Turkey’s national sport and is played in all around the country. The most popular teams are Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray, Besiktas and Trabzonspor, being the Galatasaray the most success, winning the 2000 UEFA Cup and European Super Cup. Turkey in the last years has exported many of its players into top foreign teams principally into European Clubs like Barcelona, Milan, and Parma among others. As well as sending players abroad, the Turkish league has also attracted players into Turkey.

Skiing

Turkey’s geography and its climate have created great conditions for skiing and winter sports. Turkey is mainly mountainous, and many regions have cooler climates than the major resort areas. There are several ski resorts in Turkey, which offer skiing facilities spanning from November to May.

The main ski resorts in Turkey are Uludag in Bursa, located at 1 ½ hours south of Istanbul by ferry and bus. This very popular resort is at 2453 meters. Kartalkaya located in outskirts of Bolu, slopes at 2221 meters' (7300 feet) altitude. Ilgaz at Kastamonu in the north of Ankara in Kastamonu province, the ski center is at 2000 meters (6600 feet). Sarikamis located in Kars at 2120 meters (7000 feet) of altitude and Palandöken in Erzurum is Turkey's coldest and highest (3150 meters/ 10,300 feet) offering with good hotels, good conditions.

Wrestling/Oil Wrestling

Wrestling in Turkey is very popular and another national sport. Yagli gures means literally oiled wrestling. Every year since 1640 Turkey’s wrestlers – men and boys – have gathered for their national championships on a grassy field held on Edirne. The wrestlers wear tight short leather trousers called "Kispet", made of water buffalo leather weighing approximately 13 kilograms, and they cover themselves with olive oil.

TURKEY LANGUAGE

Turkish is the official language of Turkey and one of the official languages of Cyprus. It belongs to the Althay branch of the Ural-Altay linguistic family, also know as Turkic languages. The Ural-Altay linguistic family has originated in the highlands around the Altay Mountains of Central Asia at centuries ago. More than 90 percent of the population of the country spokes Turkish but there also some 70 other languages and dialects that are also spoken, including various dialects of Caucasian and Kurdish as well as Arabic, Greek, Ladino and Armenian.

The Turkish language comes to Turkey when nomads from Altay Mountains came to Anatolian region bringing their language with them. Ever since very earliest times, Turkish has influenced various dialects of Middle Persian, and turned the Caucasus and Anatolia away from the Indo-European group of languages.

During the Ottoman Empire the language was expanded to the gates of Vienna and to Arabia, Egypt and Northern Africa, hence, the language and vocabulary has been influenced with words from Arabic, Persian and European languages. These imported words mostly (but not always) follow the basic grammar and vowel harmony of native Turkish.

After the establishment of the Republic, Ataturk impulsed reformations in the language and in 1928 was adopted a Latin based alphabet instead of Arabic script. In 1932 was established the Turkish Language Research Society in order to simplify the language, today still active, but with the name of Turkish Language Board and among its responsibilities are the simplification, enrichment and beautification of the Turkish language.

Now the Turkish alphabet has 29 letters, 8 of which are vowels and 21 are consonants. The Turkish language is written phonetically which means every letter is uttered while reading.

HEALTH IN TURKEY

Turkish main cities are well covered with hospitals and private clinics available at reasonable costs. In rural areas and the east of the country, health services are less developed. The majority health cares services have bilingual professional and speak a foreign language. Medical facilities and standard of health care are not high in state hospitals and private health insurance is highly recommended.

It is recommended receive inoculations for Polio and Typhoid before travelling to Turkey. Also there is a risk of malaria in the south-eastern, but there are no reports of infection in main tourist areas. Some cases of bird flu have been reported in northern, eastern and central Turkey, but there is no evidence of the virus passing between humans.

To entry to the country there are no vaccination requirements, but is recommended to take care before to go to the country.

Water in the country are treat with chlorine, but to avoid any type of stomachic upset is recommended bottled water for drinking. Food from street vendors should be consumed with caution.

Health Precautions for Travel to TurkeyTo reduce health risks visiting Turkey is recommended consider the following precautionary health measures.

• 
  Take your malaria prevention medication before, during, and after travel, as directed
  Mosquito and insect bite prevention
  Avoid drinking non-treated water - try drink only bottled water.
  Eat only cooked food or fruits and vegetables you have peeled yourself.
  to prevent fungal and parasitic infections, keep feet clean and dry, and do not walk barefoot.
  Avoid eat food from street vendors.
  To avoid rabies try to not handle animals especially monkeys, dogs, and cats.
  Use sun block and take sunglasses and a hat.

POSTAL SERVICE IN TURKEY

The Turkish postal service is run by the PTT, they are easily recognized, all of them bear a yellow distinctive with a PTT sign.

Open hours are: Mon-Sat 8am-5pm; main branches are open until 7 or 8pm also on Sundays. Letters, Post cards and open enveloped post cards do have different tariffs. Post boxes are clearly labelled with categories of destination - yurtdisi means overseas.

The PTT is the best place to make phone calls. Post offices sell phonecards (30, 60 and 100 units) and jetons (tokens), and have both types of phone, as well as metered phones.

TELEPHONE SERVICE IN TURKEY

Telephone Service in Turkey is provided by Turk Telekom, a half privatized company, covering all the country with local and international direct dialing system.

Turkish telephone numbers do have 7 digits in Turkey. Each Turkish town/city has its own 3 digits "Area Code".

Calling To/From Turkey

Turkey Country Code is 90. To call to Turkey from abroad dial your Access Code for International dial usually 00 (worldwide), followed by the country code, 90 + the Turkish city/town code + the phone number. For instance, to call to a phone number located in the European side of Istanbul, the dial will be: 00 90 212 PHONE NUMBER.

To dial abroad from Turkey dial the international code 00 followed by the country code and the number including the local area code.

There are three GSM mobile-phone companies, all of whit sell pre-paid SIM cards for around $20. Top-up cards are widely available.

Public pay phonesPublic telephones are conveniently located throughout the country. There are public phone booths which accept cards or tokens, called “jetons”, which can be bought from post offices (PTT) or local shops. The JETONS are available in three sizes: small for local calls, large for international calls and medium which can be used for either.

Calling from your hotel might be quite expensive, but as an alternative the public phones are cheaper. It is wise to check rates before making a call.

Useful Numbers Emergency :

Office/Institution Number

Fire Department 110
Emergency 112
International Operator 115
Directory Assistance 118
Reversed Charge Calls 131
Police 155
Gendarme 156
Coast Security 158
Forest Fire 177

THE COMMUNICATIONS IN TURKEY

The communications in Turkey are well developed, although telecommunication services (both domestic and international) are best in urban areas. Telephone system covers all the country with efficiently working direct local and international dialing system.

Postal Offices are conveniently located in all districts of every city and town. Turkish post offices are easily recognizable by the yellow and black “PTT” signs.

Internet Access is well developed, there are public places with Wi-Fi connection and Café Internet which have cheap fees per hour of usage of the service.

ATMs & Credit Cards

In turkey major credit cards are widely accepted at almost all hotels, most restaurants, department stores, grocery stores, and big retailers. Visa, MasterCard are the most accepted, also American Express and Diners Club but less often.
ATMs are conveniently located everywhere in Turkey, even in small towns. Almost all banks have ATMs and there are a huge number of free-standing ones at strategic points operating in the same way as those throughout the USA and Europe. There is available an option to choose the language and in some cases to choose Turkish Lira, US Dollars or Euros. To avoid any problem or difficulty is best to use an ATM machine from the same credit card company.