Greven,
In my opinion the Ottomans were never definitely 'technologically' backwards, until perhaps the start of the 18th century. The slow deteriation of their military capability mirrored that of Poland-Lithuania. The Ottomans held a huge advantage of their European counterparts pre 1500, in both training, organization and tactics. I believe the Ottomans had well trained soldiers perhaps 50+ years before any sort of significant effort was made on the part of the Europeans to maintain standing, trained and specialized armies. The Spanish were first in organizing such armies in the early 16th century, the Poles followed very soon around 1535 with their 'potoczna' armies, on constand standing ready to parry any sort of raids or moves by the Tartars in southern Poland. There are several reasons why many historians believe the Ottomans were technologically backwards for much of this time, which is rather incorrect. They soon adoped the very newest military practices and tactics. In reality the Ottomans suffered a general, but slow decline in their forces from the 1680's onwards. They had been defeated in Europe and by 1699 a treaty was signed. Through general lack of willingness (and possibly internal problems, Greven?) to learn new technologies quickly enough, they were 'defaulted' just like the Poles, after Sobieski. The explanations / reasons for their updated theories are
a) Europe encountered a huge explosion of almost non stop warfare from the 17th century especially. Armies became larger, more organized, better trained with better equipment. Hence they were able to tackle the Ottoman armies on a much more even footing.
b) Most of the European countries the Ottomans thought pre 1683 were countries that are still thought as being technologically backwards: Poland, Hungary and so on. Historians found out that the Poles / Hungarians did rather well against them, which would mean that the Ottomans would be regarded as being even more backwards, if the eastern Europeans could defeat them.
c) The general theory, still held by many historians that eastern Europe was technologically backwards when it came to advancements in military technologically. This is especially true in the case of Poland and Hungary. Another incorrect theory.
d) The theory that the Ottoman armies lacked firepower, is also incorrect. Their artillery was extremely potent, and they had a large trained force of infantry (janczary), schooled in the newest forms of such warfare.
Sapura
Turkey, as a major power gets certain bonuses that maybe particulary specific to the country and the situation its in. Also, the sheer size of the country, speaking purely province wise in this game is staggering. High population, lots of room to develop, lots of room to expand into central Europe, the east and north africa. 
