Looks to be 15 % off for most shops in Canada , but nothing super crazy <| sep |> Funny thing ! Fellow Californian going to explore tokyo on the 30 th . <| sep |> Your friend is an idiot . Let ' s see his arguments This is evident as throughout the past halfcentury , the lira has continuously decreased in value . This is probably true on the long run but needs more concrete proof . Turkey needs structural economic reformsEverybody knows that Turkey needs structural reforms the problem is AKP and most of Turkey ' s conservatives think that reforms can be done just in economics while the overall mentality remains in Middle Ages . Just because this dilemma was not evident in first 5 years of AKP ' s reign does not mean it was nonexistent . reforms . which it has done in the past 14 years of AKPrule . Republic ' s proclamation . I believe AKP ' s initial economic successes were not breakthrough or extraordinary . If somebody wants more elaboration on this opinion , please refer to Dani Rodrik ' s blog , Turkish Economist prof in Harvard . economicmyths . h t m l w e l l d i d t h e t u r k i s h e conomydooverthelastdecade . htmlI do not want to fall into appeal to authority fallacy . Two established scholars may have complete different explanations with regard to a phenomenon , especially in social sciences . For instance , another economist Arthur Laffer claims that Erdogan is better than Obama in finance . I just wonder if he still stands now or will stand 6 month later behind his assessment . u s e c o n o m i s t a r t h u r l a f f e r p r a i s e s t u r k i s h e c o n o m y p r o p o sestotradeobamaforerdogan However , 14 years is insufficient for a problem so deeply rooted and not seriously challenged during the first 79 years since the Republic ' s proclamation . Anybody who has nodding acquaintance with history knows that the problem of Turkey lagging behind the West is much much more deeply rooted than first 79 years of republic . It is always hard to pinpoint an exact date for such a longterm process , but if you want a starter , I would say year of 1580 , when observatory of Turkish polymath Taqi adDin was destroyed while his counterpart Tycho Brahe was sheltered by European monarchs . just google FMIThere has never been genuine enthusiasm for Modernization and Westernization in Turkey except the time of Ataturk of course , Even Erdogan once famously told democracy was a tool , not the goal . So democratic reforms were just tools for establishing economic ties with the developed countries and accumulating rich . When this plan failed due to superficial nature of Turkish democratization , we keep hearing about interestrate lobby , upper mind , great schemes to stop the rise of Turks etc .