A success would be welcome for Norén, who has not had a particularly fun golf year. The 37-year-old is 65th in the European Tour Race to Dubai and needs to advance in order to play the final competition in Dubai in two weeks.
As the successes have failed, the Stockholmer has also rallied from 19th to 60th place on the world rankings, but he needs to get back to the top 50 to be guaranteed play in all majors next year.
Marcus Kinhult went first round in Turkey on two strokes under par, while Sebastian Söderberg went on par and Joakim Lagergren one over. Lead makes Englishman Tom Lewis and Austrian Mattias Schwab, both seven under par.