Turks quietly find love online
While official statistics suggest that very few Turks are finding their partners on the Internet, dating website figures tell another story.
If the thought of online dating in a majority-Muslim country inclined to conservatism seems strange, you should get over it. Although the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) finds that only 0.1% of 603,751 marriages in 2012 happened after couples met first in a digital environment, compared to 41% tying the knot with people introduced through their family circles, the real story is a little bit more complicated.
“I don’t take TUIK’s findings seriously on this issue,” said Haluk Akin, co-owner of PembePanjur, a dating-for-marriage site with nearly 2 million visitors, who sign up for a fee of less than $10. “There is a negative perception about finding your partner online, and couples usually end up lying about it if they end up in a working, long-lasting relationship potentially and hopefully ending with a marriage.”
