It's such a shame to read such a one sided topic - and of course I am aware that I was part of that - but the fact is that it is true. For each scareylady story or Janice1971 I probably know 30 more. It simply is a bad idea. Alper posted the other day that his new bank ING is offering 9% interest on savings over 50,000 TL (£21,000). I do not have a hotels for sale section or anything for business opportunities on the property listings on my sites because I simply do not believe they are good investments for non-nationals. I have been asked to find buyers for hotels at up to a million pounds - if I had a million quid, why would I want a bloody hotel to worry about, staff to watch like a hawk and Efes to sell at 20p a bottle profit (before wages, electricity, pool chemical costs etc etc) - no, if I had a million pounds I would hand it to Alper (other banks are available) and live a great worry free life on the "free" £90,000 a year that brings.
You really are up against it and if not knowing the language isn't enough hinderance, you will find that you are in an oversubscribed market place (be it hotel, bar, estate, restaurant etc) and even if you made a bit of profit you may not see it. If it isn't pilfered, conned by your partners, it might well be prised away by the powers that be. If there isn't a law to get it, they'll make one up. In the beginning (well, 2003-2004) you could have a big sign with your company name & details on it. Then, you could but the local authority decided that signs couldn't be in English, they had to be in Turkish only. Several businesses had to change their advertised name, even though this was not the case just up the road in the likes of Hisaronu where "Delboy's Shop" and "The Red Lion" pub were seen as being completely fine. Then, you could keep your sign but there was a new tax (plucked out of the air) of around £3000 a year to keep them or they would need to be removed. Then, they decided that all signs should be the same size and style and you had to get them made by one specific guy. These signs could once again be in English, Turkish, whatever you liked.
That's just the local politics of signage, the red tape of having a name - and trust me, your sign is one of the most minor concerns you will have when trying to make a living in Turkey