Without wishing to stretch the imagination Turkey for those who don't know it is a huge country located in south Eastern Europe. Of course this is a moot point because technically the Bosporus is where Europe meets Asia

Turkey borders the Black Sea between Bulgaria and Georgia. Turkey also borders the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Syria

This makes Turkey slightly larger than the state of Texas (this last point is added for the sake of our American friends). With a landmass extending to some 780,580 km² in total area, 9,820 km² of which is water. Turkey has 7,200 km of coastline and what can be described as a temperate climate with hot dry summers and mild wet winters.

Turkey occupies a strategic location controlling the Turkish Straits, (the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmara and Dardanelles) which link the black and Aegean seas; Mount Ararat, a location extremely well known to most biblical scholars or Sunday school pupils is of course the legendary landing place of Noah's Ark and is in the far eastern part of the country.

Turkey's dynamic economy is a complex mix of modern industry and commerce, which along with the traditional agricultural sector still accounts for more than 35% of all unemployment in the country. Turkey has a strong and rapidly growing private sector yet it is the state that still plays a major role in basic industry, banking, transport and communications sectors.

Within the Turkish economy the largest industrial sector is textiles and clothing and this sector accounts for more than one third of industrial employment in Turkey but it faces stiff competition in international markets with what is called the end of the global quota system.

One of the key reasons for taking a look at Turkey at the moment is primarily to examine its full potential for property investment. According to experts the future prospects for Turkey are very positive indeed and this has had a knock on effect directly through to the Turkish property market, where investor interest has apparently surged throughout 2005/6 and where property prices are apparently beginning to creep up fast.

Though property prices in Turkey may lag about 10 years behind those in Spain this trend is starting to change and the gap is starting to close. Turkish properties have surged in both interest and value particularly along the Riviera region in southern Turkey.

What has acted of course as a catalyst to the Turkish property market was the announcement that Turkey is now in line for full EU membership and since this announcement, investor confidence in Turkey has reached record proportions.

One of the most crucial foreign currency earners for Turkey is its revenue from tourism. This rose 14% in 2005 to 18.15 billion US dollars just beating the government official target.

Because the Turkish tourism Board is spending a lot of money promoting the resorts along Turkeys Riviera coast the result is that second home, holiday home and retirement home interest in these parts of Turkey has surged. For those looking to invest in the economy this is highly encouraging.

If you know where to look, there are bargains to be had with the Turkish Property Market

Scott James writes about a number of Internet based issues such as Real Estate Investment and Real Estate Marketing. A keen proponent of all aspects of free and independent services available, he advises clients to look at the whole mix of online services available.