Turkish Customs – With a Sting in the Tail! - Part 1 of 2

The following is a great submission from reader, and long term Bodrum resident, Ros Elliott-Ozlek, who re-tells her experience of Turkish Customs - the good and the bad...
This story is © Ros Elliott-Ozlek, Nov 2009 Nov 2009.

I shipped my furniture and books from UK to Turkey in 2003, twice as there were two houses to clear at different times that year. It cost me about £2,000 each time to the UK agents.

The Turkish agents receiving my goods and helping me clear customs also took from me about 2,000TL in total to do so, with the assurance I would get most of it back after 5 years. I was told to keep all the documents safely.

None of the furniture was valuable. Most of it was extremely old and makeshift. I wanted to have my books and things around me again as I had bought a new house in Turkey. My first real house after renting for 16 years.

After the five years were up in 2008, I delayed going back to the customs office for a number of reasons – fear being the strongest. I thought it wouldn’t matter as the five years had passed, so the goods would become Turkish anyway, so delay was not a problem.....

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