The latest news regarding the Universal Health Insurance (as of 25th January 2011) from the British Government is as follows:

Latest Update on Turkish Health Insurance Regulations

This is an update to our notice earlier today 25 January about the sudden changes to the Turkish health insurance system which have introduced compulsory state health insurance for foreigners when they have been in Turkey as registered residents  for over a year. Foreigners in this category are required to join the system by the end of January or face  a fine for non-payment.

The Ambassador and a consular team called on the Turkish authorities today.  He set our concerns over the substance, cost, lack of clarity and short notice of the change that has been announced.

We here at The Ege Eye are closely following any new developments regarding the Universal Health Scheme for foreign citizens.
A recent update on the British Embassy in Ankara website states the following:

"Update:

As we posted yesterday, we are aware of the confusion and concern in the community over the new healthcare requirements for certain foreign nationals that the Turkish authorities have just announced; and over the additional confusion caused by the way in which regional offices are apparently applying the new policy inconsistently.

As those who have lived in Turkey for some time will recall, we were initially told in 2010 that a compulsory healthcare scheme was going to be launched.  We were later informed that implementation had been delayed until December 2012; and then that the scheme was likely to be cancelled.

Over the last few days The Ege Eye has been receiving an increasing amount of enquiries with regard to the rights and responsibilities of foreign nationals resident in Turkey in respect of Universal Health Insurance.

It is clear that the topic is being discussed not only by those of you who may be affected by the 2006 law but by many others who have a wide range of differing opinions on the subject.

As a consequence, albeit with good intention, all kinds of inaccurate and misleading information has been presented as fact by those seeking to clarify the rights and responsibilities of their fellow ex-pat friends and neighbours.

Even our own editorial team has been drawn into the nonsense where it was even claimed that:

"Have just had a phone call from a friend who has been to talk to Karim at the Ege Eye...and then went to speak to Dee at the Belediye...she has been told by both of them that there is no need to worry about this SSK Insurance. She has been assured that nothing is going to happen until later in the year as they don't know how to deal with us expats"

*(quoted directly from a post on a local forum today)

This kind of false information not only offends those of us who are in the forefront of bringing important and accurate news to the local community but unfairly mis-informs those unsuspecting readers who take what they read to be true. I can assure you that no-one at The Ege Eye office has said or even suggested that "there is no need to worry about this SSK Insurance"

I do not intend on this occasion to even try to correct the long list of inaccuracies that make direct reference to the The Ege Eye, or any of its hardworking and dedicated team, as the purpose of this statement is to bring clarity on what we know, or indeed don't know, about Law No. 5510. All I will say is

A comprehensive range of insurance is available in Turkey to protect your holiday home and possessions from a wide variety of risks. Our guide will run through what you need to do to make sure you are covered.

It’s easy to think that bad things happen to other people and not ourselves, but the facts suggest that isn’t a risk we can afford to take.

In Turkey the risks to property are much higher than the UK in some ways with the added risks of earthquakes, landslides, forest fires and flooding insuring your property and contents makes sense.

The Turkish government takes the earthquake threat very seriously following major earthquakes in the past that almost crippled Turkey's economy and it requires all home owners to take out a compulsory basic insurance against the risk of earthquake damage.

But you’d be surprised how many homeowners in Turkey don’t insure themselves leaving fate to deal its hand.

Our guide will run through what you need to do to make sure you are covered and also suggest some places to look for quotes.

In our first article we run through the types of insurance and the preparations you will need to make before hitting the streets or the internet to find a suitable insurance policy.You can also contact the Foreign Citizens Advice Centre in Kusadasi on (0256) 6123207 or call in to their offices anytime where they will be happy to assist you.

Types of Property Insurance

There are three main categories:

1. Buildings
2. Contents
3. DASK – Compulsory insurance required by the Turkish Government, more on that later.

Determine What You Want Insured and the Values

First up, you need to gather some basic information and have a think about what you want to insure and what you don’t. This will be important when you start the shop around for quotes later.

You’ll also need to work out the value of your property for some insurers. This value isn’t the market value but the cost of rebuilding, an important distinction to make. Even if you do insure using the market value the insurance company will only pay out to rebuild or the reinstatement cost so don’t waste your money over valuing.

So how do you work out the rebuild value?

Hereke carpets are some of the finest hand-woven Turkish carpets around. But Turkey is losing this trade name to China after it abolished the municipality of Hereke.

Hereke, now an abolished municipality in the province of İzmit, is famous for its hand-woven carpets since the 19th century.

China is notorious for its long list of copyright infringements, but this time it has cloned the entire concept of Hereke, a world-famous traditional Turkish carpet business. Already producing fake and low quality Hereke carpets, the Chinese carpet industry has now built an entire Hereke Industrial Zone, allowing producers to legally tag their carpets with the Hereke brand.

The carpets are hand-woven, silk carpets and are branded with the name of the place they were first made, Hereke. However, Turkey unconsciously aided Chinese attempts to take over the global Hereke carpet market by

Overseas property owners based in the UK are about to be targeted by a new HM Revenue & Customs "affluent unit", which has been set up by the British government to address what it sees as tax avoidance by the rich.

A new team of 200 taxation investigators and specialists has been established by HMRC to identify wealthy individuals who, amongst other things, own land and property abroad … such as a holiday home.

OPP understands that the tax attack unit will concentrate on overseas property assets first, and then switch its attention to UK-based commodity traders (who have been accused of helping to drive up food prices,) before looking into the number of UK residents who hold offshore investment accounts.

HMRC says that it will be using sophisticated

A draft law easing the current regulations for foreigners to obtain real estate in Turkey was sent to the Cabinet for signature. The total amount of real estate foreigners can purchase will increase dramatically if the draft law is enacted by Parliament after Cabinet approval.

The 25,000-square-meter limit on foreign ownership would be increased to 300,000 square meters, according to the draft by the Urban Planning Ministry. The law will also grant Cabinet the authority to raise the limit to 600,000 square meters.

Under current regulations, the reciprocity principle is in force in selling property and land to foreigners, which means a foreign citizen is allowed to obtain property only if a Turkish citizen can do the same in that person’s country of origin.

Today one of our volunteers here at the Advice Centre accompanied a British couple to Aydin to assist them with their residency application.

After the application was made they were told it would take up to  4 working days to process the applicatıon which at this time is quicker than the 7 to 10 days it had been previously,however we suggest that unless you need to collect your residency urgently you should wait 7 to 10 days before going back to Aydin to collect it in case of any delays.

We would also like to inform you of a small change in the charge for residency application .

Your residency book (ikamet),as of 1st January 2012 now costs 172TL  an increase of 15%

Unbeknown to most of the foreign people living in Turkey is that after having lived here for a year, if you drive a car you must obtain a Turkish driving licence.
For anyone who does not have a Turkish licence and are unfortunate enough to have an accident, then they will be faced with all involved costs as their insurance company will not pay out and will even face a heavy fine or jail sentence.

The process of obtaining a licence is not a difficult one but can be a little daunting for those of you who don’t speak Turkish.