What products can we buy to support Turks?

by philg

I would like to support the Turkish people by supporting the Turkish economy. What should I buy? (As noted in Japan Relief Idea: Buy a folding saw, I prefer the idea of trade rather than sending money to nonprofit orgs where it could be swallowed up by employees paying themselves $millions (see Our first grader learns about the non-profit world (American Heart Association) for example)).

From our government:

How about carpets and textiles? A lot of food in jars and cans from the local Middle Eastern store? (these are thin on the ground in Jupiter, Florida, but maybe they exist down towards West Palm Beach) I found a mail-order shop in Pittsburgh. Amazon sells Turkish olive oil with free delivery.

Readers: do you know of a good online source for Turkish carpets of at least medium quality (wool rather than synthetic, for example)?

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9 thoughts on “What products can we buy to support Turks?”

  1. There are some pretty decent firearms made in Turkey. So, buy a Turkish made pistol for home defense, or, better still, a nice over-under shotgun so you can take your kids to the range to shoot trap.

    • I came here to say this. A friend of mine bought a Turkish over-under shotgun and he loved it.

  2. Carpets are not an option. Rug-weaving is a very labor-intensive craft and in any moderately high-income country like Turkey or even Iran, an art form with thousands of years of history is sadly no longer economically viable otherwise than for the ultra-rich or museums. Most of the rugs you buy there will be either machine-made (often from China), or by Afghan or Tibetan refugees in Pakistan and India.

    Turkey is the world’s largest producer of hazelnuts, just as California is for almonds and pistachios, accounting for a staggering 80% of the world’s production, so almost anything with hazelnuts will have a Turkish component. Ülker, Godiva, McVitie, Carr’s, Jacob’s crackers, Delacre, Verkade and BN are owned by a Turkish conglomerate.

    Waterford Crystal is no longer made in Ireland but in Turkey, so that would be an option. Turkish cotton towels are fairly common and very high quality.

    You could watch Turkish TV shows on Netflix like “The Protector” (quite entertaining, actually) and have some royalties go their way.

    There are quite a lot of high-quality leather goods made in Turkey, but it is subcontracting for established western brands so you may now know until you look at the tag. Linjer.co’s bags are made in Turkey, for instance.

  3. Syria is in a much dire need for help than Turkey. If anyone is thinking how they can help Syrian’s, I would suggest donating via https://www.theoutreachfoundation.org/online-giving Make sure to select “Middle East Earthquake Relief” when donating.

    (moderator: feel free to remove this post if it violates posting guidelines by promoting a charity)

  4. I don’t know how buying Turkish products will help the people whose homes were destroyed but Turkey is big in car manufacturing, mostly for European and US brands sold into Europe so that might be a thought. Kilims and carpets are still being made in Turkey using traditional methods with traditional materials and dyes. Many are terrific and not all that expensive, say 1-2K. Turkey is one of the great tourist countries on the planet, right up there with places like France and Britain. Lots of great sights. The people are hospitable and the food is excellent so once things return to normal maybe the best bet is to visit the place and spend TL on great hotels and food & buy a kilim — you will be fleeced but so what? Spring, summer and autumn are all fine times to visit.

    Turkey is an interesting country that punches way below its weight. Its people are entrepreneurial and industrious but it suffers from bad government and endemic corruption. No doubt at least some of the deaths were caused by low quality construction materials and bribed inspectors.

  6. Directed-trade-as-charity is a better policy for when a country is chronically in need of long-term support (see: any cause that regularly advertises). Acute situations like earthquake relief probably merit unreciprocated direct giving to classic charities. But you can certainly do both!

  7. You can effectively double your charitable giving by buying a Bayraktar drone and gifting it to Ukraine. Unfortunately, they start at $5 million.

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