With a skilled workforce, dynamic private sector, growing middle class, nascent democratic government, and strategic geographic position, Turkey represents a tantalizing opportunity for premium-starved insurers.

But with a history of strongman politics, internal ethnic strife, a border shared with Syria in the midst of a civil war, and located on the periphery of the ever-politically volatile Middle-East, Turkey also poses a multitude of risks. Protests that began on May 31 over plans to demolish a park in central Istanbul are the latest evidence of prevailing risks. And those are just the man-made perils. Turkey is also in one of the most seismically-active areas of the world.