As there is very little crime in this area, it’s quite safe to go walking around, even at night. It’s a real pleasure to be able to go walking both in town, and around the various outlying villages without worrying about being mugged. It’s more likely that you’ll be invited into either a shop or village house for a glass of çay (tea). As Turkish people are so friendly and hospitable, you’re sure of a warm greeting and made to feel welcome wherever you go. The climate is excellent with mainly blue skies and sunshine all year round, be warned that in July and August the temperature can be rather high. An average winter’s day is similar to a spring day in the United Kingdom, although quite cold early mornings and evenings.

There are various activities for you to enjoy, including sailing, swimming, scuba-diving, white water rafting, walking, cycling and mountain bike riding. For the skiing enthusiast there are the ski slopes at Saklent, which is about 1½ hours away. Approx ½ hour from Kemer a new cable car system is under construction to take one up to the top of the highest mountain nearest to Kemer approx 7,400 ft. There are plans for a ski centre and restaurants to be built at the top of the mountain, with a golf course to be constructed lower down. For those who are really fit and energetic, you can go trekking or mountaineering.  If you love horses then you’re in for a treat, as there are ranches stocked with excellent horses just outside of town. These ranches offer both riding lessons and accompanied riding trips up and along forested mountain trails. For those who play golf, there are a number of top quality courses at Belek, which is approx 11/2 hours away from Kemer and only ½ hour from Antalya airport.

If you enjoy exploring ancient ruins Turkey is full of them, including Ephesus one of the Seven Wonders of the World. There are some very beautiful and interesting ruins around the Kemer region that are well worth visiting, including Olympos, Phaselis, Perge, Aspendos and Termessos. Termessos is famous as being known as the only place in Turkey that Alexandra the Great never conquered. He apparently took one look up at the narrow twisting mountain trail and decided against attacking it.

A foreigner, who arrives in Turkey for the first time is somewhat surprised by what he sees until he gets to know the Turkish nation more closely. He or she lands in Istanbul at Ataturk Airport, a huge, gorgeous, modern airport that has been being constantly expended to keep pace with the demand of 17-18 million foreign tourists expected this year and the ever-growing keen interest shown to this budding “world power” of the 21st century.

The foreign tourist passes through the routine passport and customs check points rather quickly with courteous policemen and officials serving them, under the watchful looks of an Ataturk poster or a bust; gets in the bus which usually contains an Ataturk photograph somewhere somehow; passes through a few streets named after the founder of the Republic; goes through some squares that are sure to have a big statue of Ataturk; arrives in the hotel only to face other Ataturk posters, paintings or busts; exchanges his hard currency for the Turkish Liras with big handsome pictures of Ataturk all over the banknote. Only in a dictatorship - in Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia or Saddam’s Iraq that one can see such a hero worship, with one big and basic difference, however. While these posters and statues come crumbling down with the fury of the people as soon as the dictator falls, this love of Ataturk is totally sincere and from the depths of the heart of the Turkish nation to show their gratitude to their great leader who pulled them out of the darkness of the middle ages of a theocratic State and made it today’s modern democracy heading for the European integration in the unflinching direction of its beloved and eternal leader, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Is this love for Ataturk unanimous in Turkey? Of course not! Which country is totally devoid of uneducated, misguided fanatics or sick minded people that Turkey should be unanimous in this well earned gratitude to its leader? But the love and respect for Ataturk or rather to his masterpiece, the modern  Turkish Republic, is deep in the hearts of the nation and that is what makes him very much alive throughout the country seven decades after his death. What’s more the Turkish youth to which Ataturk delivered the Republic is quite alert and in its guards against any possible dangers menacing these reforms.

Turkish economy is flourishing under free market rules and democracy. Leaving aside the disenchantment that arises from these differences of opinion between these two great democracies of our time, with the belief that they have so far been able to bridge their differences, we should bring the Turkish economy under the spotlight. Under the suspicious eyes of the majority of the Turkish nation, it has been observed in the last 2-3 decades that the Americans’ democracy and free market methods are really making an unbelievable impact in the national economy.

To cut a long story short, the higher up levels of the two digit inflation rate which once, in 1994, went up to three digits, were bitterly pestering the Turkish nation for the last 3-4 decades to the point of losing its patience at times. In May 2005 the yearly inflation rate was 8.7% for consumer prices and 5.59% for producer prices, the lowest rates of the last 37 years.

The six zeroes thrown off from the Turkish Lira this year saved the Turkish nation from being “poverty stricken billionaires.” Today the TL or rather the YTL (Y standing for “Yeni” new) has almost one to one parity with the US dollar or Euro. As of the end of May, the dollar parity was YTL.1.35 and Euro YTL1.75. To prevent the YTL from over-appreciating the Turkish Central Bank has bought $9 billion this year, contrary to the practice of the developing nations which exert great efforts to keep up the value of their currencies. These purchases have raised the Central Bank’s foreign exchange reserves to close to $40 billion.

Along with the sharp drop in the inflation rate, there has been a sharp drop in the bank rates in the last three years. The Treasury marketed %1.5 billion worth of 15-year Eurobonds last week, on 3 June. The demand, especially from abroad, was so big that it was “plundered” within three hours at 7% interest rate on dollar basis, the most suitable price for the sale of Turkey Eurobonds so far. The supply could hardly meet one-sixth of the demand from abroad and it was a good assurance for the economic stability of the country.

The economic growth in 2004 was 9.9%, the highest of the world, even surpassing China’s miraculous performances of recent years. It was a good sign, but its sustainability is more than doubtful. The growth target this year is 5%.

The exports are simply booming with leaps and bounds in recent years. As of end-May, the one year exports were close to $70 billion ($69.419 billion, to be exact.), up by 28.5% on a year before. The target for 2005 is $72 billion. Tourism is a God-send to Turkey. With some optimism, Turkey is expecting $20 billion a year from 17-18 million tourists this year or next. Since the beginning of the year, Antalya received 1 778 889 tourists with a 25-30% increase on a year before.

As against these phenomenal achievements of recent years, the Turkish economic is not lacking setbacks and pitfalls either. As against 30% growth or so in exports, imports rise equally high, if not higher, tending to exceed $100 billion. Consequently, the foreign trade gap is widening and it makes a bad impact on the current accounts. In the first four months of the year, the current accounts gap was 8.9 billion, up by 25.4% on a year before.  This deficit will be $15.3 billion this year, according to the IMF report.

Government sources say that the rise in imports is partly due to the rising oil prices and mostly to imports of manufactured goods, with the end in view of competing with the Chinese challenge in this globalization age since the beginning of the year. By importing high technology intensive manufactured goods instead of much cheaper labour intensive industries Turkey fails to solve its unemployment problem and the current accounts gaps, but it is able to get less harm from the Chinese textile exports and other industrial goods.