In the context of the Turkish economy, Anatolian Tigers (Turkish: Anadolu Kaplanları) are a number of cities in Turkey which have displayed impressive growth records since the 1980s, as well as a defined breed of entrepreneurs rising in prominence and who can often be traced back to the cities in question and who generally rose from the status of small and medium enterprises.
[1] Where particular cities are concerned, the term is most often used for the capitals or depending centers of Denizli, Gaziantep, Kayseri, Balıkesir, Konya, Kahramanmaraş, Bursa and İzmit.
In time order, while Denizli in Turkey's Aegean Region was the early hour precursor for rapid growth in an Anatolian Tiger pattern,[3] Gaziantep, Malatya, Konya and Kayseri are the most recently cited prominent Tigers on the basis of the number of companies they have among Turkey's 500 biggest.
The term is also echoed, in the form "Anatolian Lions" (Turkish: Anadolu Aslanları), by the name of the private sector association Askon that brings together businessmen from a number of other cities who have found common grounds between each other.
A 2005 study by the European Stability Initiative that was focused on Kayseri uses the term "Islamic Calvinists" to define the entrepreneurs and their values.