Well, it took me three minutes to Google that, while Turkey still has some child labour problems, the government is actively working on them, to the point of for example reducing the number of working children by half between 1994 and 1999. Also, they have mandatory school attendance from 6 to 14 years of age. So, I think your diagnose of him thinking that "Non-rich Arabs [sic] are all poor people who live in third-world countries under National Geographic-worthy conditions".

All these things, like the capital and the desert etc. are so embarrassingly easy to research. I mean, all of these things can be found out within a few hours.