Berke Guney Boz is in his last year of high school at a private school in Eskisehir in northwest Turkey. Although he still has many years of education in Turkey ahead of him, he has already made plans for his post-university life. “I want to study computer engineering at a top university, then use the opportunity to study abroad for a few more years, before getting a job in a foreign country,” Boz said. 

“I don’t see any situation where I would want to stay [in Turkey],” he added.

Boz feels left behind by his country’s economic and educational policies, and he isn’t alone -— thousands of young people in Turkey want to leave the country, where the economic situation has gone from bad to worse over the past year.

Having been faced with economic and fiscal troubles for years, Turkey finds itself in a particularly tight bind now as it looks forward to its eventual recovery from the coronavirus-induced economic downturn. With young people looking to leave the country for both economic and political reasons, Turkey’s conservative, populist leadership has been hard pressed not only to incentivize skilled citizens to stay in the country, but also to deal with the long-term, two-headed dilemma of an aging population and a declining birth rate among Turkish citizens.