Beezerboy if you had put Turkey in your post title youd probably get more answers

However the answer for you and others:

1. They arent clampimg down this is usual rumours here.

2. If you get a residents permit (Ikamet) you will require a rental contract or title deeds to a house to proove you have accomodation, and will have to have 300 dollars per month in the bank here for each month you are staying.
3. The cost is about 200 GBP per year plus a cost of about 40 GBP for the booklet. You will also need passport photos and make a declaration in Turkish to request the residents visa.

4. DONT do this from outside the country as you will be charged 80 GBP for a set of paperwork that is totally ignored here- you start the process again here.

5. Best way is to come on Tourist visa and apply about 3 weeks before that expires.

Title edited to add Turkey.

Oops sorry
Many thanks for your reply Bryn.

Tracy

its quite a lenghty, tedious progress. It takes at least a day if you know what you are doing and speak turkish! I get a company to do mine for me, he charges 100 quid but gets the whole process done in a day. Normally it takes 3 to 6 weeks and in that time you don't have your passport!

The neccesary forms can be downloaded from the Turkish Consulate website.

The loss of passport and time taken to issue your Ikamet varies from region to region.

Mugla take your passport from you and it took us 3 months to get the Ikamet when we applied about 4 years ago.

Antalya let you keep your passport and it takes only a few days to get the Ikamet.