Türkiye'nin Gayrisafi Yurtiçi Hasılası 2002-2012'de Ne Kadar Büyüdü?[How much has Turkey's GDP grown between 2002 and 2012?]

In The Economist dated June 8, 2013, it was stated that "Turkey's GDP per person had tripled in the past ten years". In the following issue, however, the editors corrected this information and wrote that "this was true only in nominal terms. In real terms, GDP per person has risen by just 43%." This statement of correction triggered a hot and long-lasting debate in the social media between Dr. Dani Rodrik, a world-wide known Turkish professor of economics, and Mr. Mehmet Şimşek, Minister of Finance of the Republic of Turkey, about the selection of most suitable indicator in evaluation of economic growth performance of Turkey between 2002 and 2012. This study firstly documents the details of the two countering arguments and development of the debate between an academic economist and a politician. It then reviews (and discusses the appropriateness of) various indicators of real and nominal (per-capita) economic growth in economic(s) discussions. For non-economists, this piece will helpful in understanding whether Rodrik, who uses the "real (per-capita) GDP growth", or Şimşek, who prefers to consider the "nominal GDP, in US dollar terms", in evaluating Turkey’s growth performance, is right, and to what extent.