Is it Safe to Travel to Istanbul, Turkey in 2018?

is it safe to travel to Istanbul in 2018
yes that is the short answer but there’s
some good numbers behind it to prove the
point if we want to look at 2017 there
were zero terrorism attacks in Istanbul
the last one happened New Year’s Eve
2017 between 2016-17 which was over a
year ago if we want to look at terrorism
in the world in 2017 in say the Western
world we have terrorism attacks that
happened in Manchester England London
England Barcelona Spain New York City if
we want to go back to 2016 we have
Brussels nice and Berlin what are the
countries here England Spain USA Belgium
in Germany all within the last couple
years terrorism attacks have happened
there the point I’m making here is that
terrorism is prevalent in a lot of the
world unfortunate countries like Turkey
get a really bum rap because well I
think they’re less less known for us
Westerners people traveling from abroad
versus a London or in New York but if
we’re gonna go also over homicides
because really at the end of the day
doesn’t matter if a bomb blows you up if
a knife kills you or you know you get a
bullet in your head
last year in Baltimore Maryland
there were a 300 what was it three
hundred and forty three homicides okay
that’s a lot especially since it’s only
a city of six hundred thousand okay it’s
not the best example of America it’s one
of the worst for homicides in the US but
if we’re gonna compare it with Istanbul
Istanbul we don’t have the numbers for
2017 but in recent history it’s around
that amount roughly around 400 people
dying in homicides here well the thing
is Istanbul is roughly 18 million people
so we’re looking at a 30 30 times via
the population of Baltimore and there’s
roughly the same amount of Hamas
and if I’m gonna compare with cities
like mono Saturday’s Argentina or Lima
Peru pretty much any Latin American city
it’s not even closely comparable the the
levels of crime and danger here in
Istanbul compared to those cities
nobody’s gonna grab a knife and put it
to you for your shoes that doesn’t exist
here so us on a hole of course things
happen here of course things can happen
here but on a whole for me it feels very
peaceful walking these streets I’ve
never once felt in danger I’ve probably
been here I don’t know 15 times
something like that 15 20 times maybe we
also we also have been taken into
account governments and governments do
weird things when their relations aren’t
well and right now Turkish US relations
are pretty terrible
last year the the Americans put her
travel research and in place for Turks
Turks did the same thing for Americans I
think it’s mellowed out a little bit now
the US government put in a three which
is orange which says reconsider travel
the only thing worse is do not travel so
it’s three out of four which in my
opinion is absolute [ __ ] like coming
to Istanbul should not be a level 3
reconsidering this trip it just it
doesn’t make any sense
statistically and it doesn’t make any
sense logically or with your street
smarts walking around here there’s again
very low risk of something happening so
the fact they put a three tells me
there’s something else going on that
well it’s reflective of the the
administrators of both administrations
not liking each other right now when the
Iraqi war started in 2002 and the Turks
didn’t want to allow the Americans to
fly warplanes from here from Turkey to
bomb in Iraq right and the Americans put
a Travel Warning on Turkey at that time
and there’s a lot to that I mean there’s
no way of knowing for sure how this
stuff works behind the scenes
how many layers deep it goes but you can
really hurt an economy in a place like
Turkey or America or most European
countries if you [ __ ] the tourism so
I feel like that’s what’s going on right
now there’s a little bit of a political
power play the thing is that’s not our
problem as people of the world that we
shouldn’t care what political policies
is are for the most part right it’s it’s
it’s like saying don’t go to America
because Donald Trump’s the president
that would be that would be silly right
why would you not go to see the US if
you could because Donald Trump’s the
president it’s not gonna affect your
travel once you’re there it’s not gonna
affect the relationships you make the
people you meet the things you see what
you experience is how you grow these are
the things that are beautiful about
travel so we get caught up I think more
and more today with the news media and
what’s being told to us and the
political shenanigans that we hear my
suggestion is eradicate all that look at
the hard data which I presented to you
and you can do your own research and
then make the decision but it’s an
absolute it’s a very sad thing if you
decide not to come to this city from
what you’ve seen from our politicians or
other politicians and the warnings you
might see issued by a government because
it’s not baked in the actual reality on
the ground here at this very moment in
time I’m here in Istanbul and there’s
everything from traditional mosques very
old neighborhoods very traditional
conservative neighborhoods and then well
like the most modern Western style
architecture and wow city is so mixed up
it really is like well that’s if it’s
everything from black ninja you know
like the full hijab and black
conservative dress to the miniskirt and
absolutely everything in between
I don’t know of a city as dynamic in
that sense is this place well I hope
this helped I hope this helped you
potentially could overcome any anxiety
you might have about visiting Istanbul
again do your own research but the
numbers don’t lie and the reality of
terrorism is it’s everywhere it’s at a
very very very small level it creates
the most noise but really nobody’s gonna
stop going to New York
um France Belgium Spain so why stop
coming to Turkey why not come to Turkey
okay so have a good trip and well I’ll
do one of these next year and hopefully
have even better news to report here’s
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