📊 The 17th-Largest Economy on Earth
Turkey has run a customs union with the EU since 1996 — tariff-free trade in industrial goods without the political complications of actual membership, a negotiation that's been technically "ongoing" for over two decades. The lira has been the harder story: a currency that's lost the large majority of its value against the dollar this decade, which cuts both ways for foreign business — painful for anyone holding lira, but it's made Turkish labor, real estate and manufacturing capacity dramatically cheaper in dollar terms for those bringing money in.
📝 Setting Up a Company
The Turkish Commercial Code grants foreign investors the same rights as domestic ones — 100% foreign ownership is standard across most sectors, no local partner required. Most founders choose between a Limited Şirketi (Ltd. Şti.), the equivalent of an LLC and the default for small and mid-size operations, or an Anonim Şirketi (A.Ş.), a joint-stock structure required for banking, insurance, and any company planning to eventually list or raise outside capital. Registration runs through MERSIS, the government's centralized electronic registry, followed by coordinated steps at the trade registry office, a notary, the tax office, and a bank — in that specific order, since an error at any stage can bounce the whole application back to the start.
📈 Borsa Istanbul
Formed in 2013 from the merger of the old Istanbul Stock Exchange, the Istanbul Gold Exchange, and the Derivatives Exchange, Borsa Istanbul now lists over 400 companies and remains relatively open to foreign investors by regional standards. The BIST 100 tracks the hundred largest and most liquid listings; the tighter BIST 30 is the blue-chip benchmark most closely watched outside the country.
🏭 The Companies That Define the Economy
Family-controlled conglomerates (holding companies) still dominate the private sector in a way few Western economies still allow: Koç Holding and Sabancı Holding between them touch banking, autos, energy and retail; Turkish Airlines, majority state-linked, has built one of the largest global route networks of any carrier by leaning hard on Istanbul's position between Europe, Asia and Africa; Arçelik (appliances) and discount grocery chain BIM are two of the country's most successful exports of the ordinary, unglamorous kind — white goods and cheap groceries, sold at genuinely enormous scale.
General information, not legal or investment advice. Currency volatility and evolving regulation mean anyone seriously exploring the market should confirm current rules with local counsel before committing capital.