I find it interesting that all of the posts about intercultural relationships are about relationships where the man is Turkish and the woman from elsewhere. I am an American man married to a Turkish woman. Are relationships where foreign men are married to Turkish women that uncommon?

My wife is Azeri (hailing from Iran). It´s not Turkish, I know, but close...

I think this was mentioned before.. but I think that in general you have a good observation Yusuf. Turkish women are less likely to step outside of the given to them boundaries, they are more controlled by the society then the men are. Probably, the Turkish women who do get involved with non-turkish men, are more likely to be more educated and from more open-minded families, while you can see uneducated Turkish men in relationships with non-turkish women. Many of those relationships are just a hoax for money and those men are still planning to eventually marry a "nice turkish woman", but not all.. and even the fact that they are permitted to get involved with so many and with non-turkish women shows how unequally treated men and women are!!

i would suggest you to ignore catwoman`s post as it`s totally irrelevant. the main reason behind why there are more relationships between turkish men and foreign women is because the possibility of foreign women meeting turkish men in holidays is much higher than that of foreign men meeting turkish women, and that`s simply because all the waiters are males in Turkey.

who do you think tourists interact with while they are on holiday in Turkey? they don`t meet the women who run big companies, or the women in parliement, they meet the waiters and the store owners who are all males.

you think Guler Sabanci, who is one of the wealthiest businesswomen of the world is not married to a foreigner because she can`t get out of the "boundaries the society set for her"? it would be moronic to assume that, as this woman is able to buy catwoman along with the city she lives in Poland without exceeding her credit card limit.

I think that is a true observation.
The main reason is that Turkey is a bit xenophobic and marrying a foreigner means you have to ´dare´ the society.
Even, for a man, it is not that easy to marry a foreign women (I am not talking about men getting involved in holiday romps with foreign women here)
You can see from many posts here that a classical-conservative Turkish family will not accept a foreign bride that easily.
But however the preliminary stages (flirting, sex etc) for getting together are permitted to Turkish men but women (not openly at least).

When you think of Turkish society a male dominated chauvinistic Islamic society in general, it will be almost impossible for a Turkish woman to find a foreign man.

More than half of Turkish women can not go out without asking her family´s permission!!
Even a woman steps outsides of the borders, drawn by the males of the society, marrying a foreigner will require extra ´bravery´ from that woman..

Apart from that, a foreign woman marrying a Turkish man, fits the legend of ´foreign woman finds the true man when she meets a Turk and she leaves everything behind including her religion´ .. Our history is full of this type of crap. A turkish woman marrying a foreigner wont fit into that..

Ah..One more thing:

No turkish family will accept a foreign groom without circumcision..May be the scare of circumcision pushes some foreign men away too.

Well both views are kind of true - it can´t be denied that the reason the majority of people on TC are women with Turkish boyfriends is because they met waiters/barmen on holiday

Another reason....some interpret the quran to say that a muslim man is not required to marry a muslim woman, but a muslim woman is required to marry a muslim man... Just add it somewhere on the long long LONGGGGG list of reasons.

There is no problem if a non Moslem Turkish woman marries a man of different faith or nation. Marriage of a Moslem Turkish woman (or a Moslem woman of any nationality)  to a non Moslem man (whatever his nation) however, is not encouraged (to say the least) for religious reasons.

I would like to find out how a Turkish partner experiences an intercultural relationship...

find it out then