Hmmm.... This is not entirely correct:
1. Theoretically yes, anybody can be taken to prison in Turkey. OK, this is crazy, but in reality only politically active people are affected.
2. Smartphones are not under surveillance, unless see #1
3. Costs are actually decreasing - the hotels got cheaper. No salary increase of 1% - that's true - however it will be done retroactively if the company starts making profit again
4. Sadly true.
5. No company rules against expats: it may seem so, but in reality there seems to be some confrontation between the flight ops and crew planning so all the pilots are affected, not only expats
6. FO's and PUR are same level of priority, so if the PUR is more senior, then yes, she goes first
7. Can't say anything
8. There's no pilot shortage (yet). Definitely no flights cancelations due to pilot shortage. If that was the case I'm sure the conditions would have been improved already and the crew planning issue were also already solved. Too many pilots now - so supply vs demand is at work.
9. The last point is completely incorrect. There's absolutely no discrimination against expats in my experience. The case being there are a lot of cultural differences that create a lot of misunderstandings, so some of us may take it personally and feel like they are being mistreated / discriminated, where in reality its just a matter of perception.
Having said that, yes, these are not easy times for Turkey, and for Turkish Airlines, and yes, we are guests in this country, so it is to be expected that many expats are leaving the company.
When things pick up again and THY needs pilots for sure just raising the salary and giving more days off will do the trick to get a new bunch of willing expats.
Its just supply and demand.
Cheers.
PS Its a great company, just not the easiest times.
Last edited by Skipping Classes; 4th May 2017 at 22:54.
Reason: PS