ISTANBUL

TURKEY

Istanbul is the place of ambition for Turkey in search of modernity.

t is a city that builds skyscrapers quickly and dramatically expands its suburbs, a city that wants to be the capital of the economic and cultural renewal of the entire country, showing the strong dynamism of its fourteen million inhabitants, whose average age is under thirty, that blend every day between the shores of its two continents. "Its" because Asia and Europe belong to this place as no other city in the world, facing each other, with the sea in the middle of the Bosphorus that instead of separate seems to mirror one bank in the other; two continents that today are one big experiment of living together, the common ground of past history, and perhaps even more future potential. For this reason, Istanbul is the city where western Europe can look for answers to questions and doubts that arise when trying to catch a glimpse of an annexation to Turkey in the European Community, and in general when trying to intuit something more about nature of the Asian world and its people who are entering continuously become part of his daily life.