2016 was not the best year for Istanbul. Despite recent events, the city is still very safe to travel to. This video shows why the chances of being involved in a …
2016 was not the best year for Istanbul. Despite recent events, the city is still very safe to travel to. This video shows why the chances of being involved in a …
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hey man, that was nice of you to comment on İstanbul based on the facts and figures. I wish u wellness and success in life in general.
Turkey no just sultan ahmet or eminönü pls come sariyer etiler kadıköy bakırköy
I'd like to be Peter's fluffer.
I am going to Istanbul this weeek. Thanks s lot fir sharing this video. Abov. From Canada.
Thank you Peter because you explained the truth very nicely.
Thank you so much for posting this. I’m going to go to Istanbul for New Years this year and I researched if it’s safe and kind of went down this spiral of scary things (fireworks as you called it). I got really scared and you helped me feel at ease again. Thank you. Now I’m actually excited to visit this city.
Turkey was a shit whole, I would never recommend it
Honestly thank you, thank you so much. All the love x
have you been to cyprus
Ok thanks I needed clarification now I'm even more exited to go!
How do they treat brown skinned, buff, tattooed, asian Americans…. I might want to get a hair transplant down there.
Türkiye ülke ve Türk insanı yararlıdır. Ama Suriye insanlardan nefret ediyorum. Ancak Türkiye İstanbul harika, harika. Türkiye seven için güvenlidir. Buraya gelirsen, görüyorsunuz.
Thank you for good country . Istanbul people religion orthodox a lot or muslim?
your still alive i thought u died
I'm traveling to Istanbul (plus Portugal and Spain) this fall and older friends/relatives were concerned about me going to Turkey. I sent them travel warnings that other countries have posted for coming to the US (where they feel safe traveling in) plus brought up the terrorist incidents in the US. I'm not going to let a few isolated incidents dictate where I go if it's overall generally safe to travel to.
My flight is in 15 hours, I'm safe right?
I'm a Brit and going in Oct, 2017 and can't wait. You shouldn't let terrorism stand in your way of visiting this city
This was really nice, thanks for this!
thanks brother.
turkish people everytime kind and harborous
A bit of history…
The Ottoman Empire was a safe haven for the Jewish people, who experienced a golden age there similar to the Golden Age of Spain. During this period of history, Turkish-Jewish relations were phenomenal. It was a time of peace, prosperity, and serenity for Ottoman Jews.
When the Ottoman Turks liberated Bursa in 1324 from the oppressive yoke of the Byzantine Empire, they discovered a heavily oppressed Jewish community. The Jews of Bursa treated the Ottoman Turks as their saviors. Sultan Orhan gave the Jews who previously couldn’t build synagogues permission to build the Etz Ha-Hayyim (Tree of Life) Synagogue. Indeed, the liberation of the Jews of Bursa in 1324 from the tyranny of the Byzantines represented the beginning of the Turkish-Jewish friendship.
Starting in the early 14th century, Jews fleeing oppression began to settle in the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman Turkey became the home to Jews expelled from Hungary in 1376, from France in 1394, and from Sicily in the early 15th century. In the 1420’s, Jews living under Venetian controlled Salonika also migrated to the Ottoman Empire. In 1453, Sultan Mehmet II started to actively encourage Jews to settle in Ottoman lands. He issued a proclamation to all Jews stating, “Who among you of all my people that is with me, may his G-d he with him, let him ascend to Istanbul, the site of my imperial throne. Let him dwell in the best of the land, each beneath his vine and beneath his fig tree, with silver and with gold, with wealth and with cattle. Let him dwell in the land, trade in it, and take possession of it.”
This statement was issued at a time when Jews across Europe were in great distress due to the persecutions they endured and were greatly in need of a safe haven. Rabbi Yitzhak Safarti sent out a letter to the Jewish communities of Europe soon after the Byzantine Empire collapsed completely in 1453, “inviting his co-religionists to leave the torments that they were enduring in Christendom and to seek safety and prosperity in Turkey.” Not too long after this letter was sent, in 1492, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain expelled the Jews from their country, which along with the Spanish Inquisition that followed it was arguably one of the most traumatic events in Jewish history prior to the Holocaust.
That same year, Sultan Bayazid II issued a proclamation ordering his officials to accept the Sephardic Jews into his country. Around 250,000 Jews came to settle in Ottoman lands, with most heading towards Istanbul and Salonika, which absorbed a total of 100,000 Jews. Immanual Aboab claimed that Bayazid II asserted that “the Catholic monarch Ferdinand was wrongly considered as wise, since he impoverished Spain by the expulsion of the Jews, and enriched Turkey.”
Interestingly, it was the Sephardic Jews who introduced the printing press into the Ottoman Empire. Sephardic Jews whose ancestors were at the center of the Golden Age of Spain recreated a new golden age within Ottoman lands. Rabbi Joseph Caro wrote the Shulchan Aruch, the standard code of Jewish law in Safed, Israel, under Ottoman Turkish rule. The Lekhah Dodi prayer which Jews to date traditionally sing in the Friday evening synagogue services around the world, was composed in medieval Israel by Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz under Ottoman Turkish rule. Joseph Nasi was appointed Duke of Naxos, while Aluaro Mandes was named Duke of Mytylene and Salamon ben Nathan Eskenazi arranged the first diplomatic ties between the Ottoman Turks and the British Empire.
Wealthy Sephardic Jews such as Dona Gracia Mendes Nasi financed the Ottoman Turkish sultan. In return for the contributions of Dana Gracia Mendes Nasi to the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Sultan offered the Jewish people the city of Tiberius for an independent city state under Ottoman tutelage. Despite local Arab and French opposition, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent continued to support the project.
According to Andree Aelion Brooks’ The Woman Who Defied Kings: the Life and Times of Dona Gracia Nasi, “In Tiberius, the newcomers were soon taking over abandoned structures, renovating deserted houses, restoring gaping roofs, clearing the rubble and quarreling in typical Jewish fashion. By 1564 the revival was sufficiently far along that yet another traveler recalled that the scent from the date palm, orange and pine trees was so overpowering that it was almost suffocating. Yet another talked effusively of a wilderness turned into a Garden of Eden. Almost all of the residents, noted one of these travelers, were former conversos from Spain and Portugal!”
As the historian Stanford Shaw wrote in Jews, Turks, and Ottomans: Fifteenth through Twentieth Century, “The Ottoman Empire had for centuries provided a safe haven for Jewish refugees from Europe. The large-scale migrations of Jews from Spain, Portugal, and other European countries in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are well known and have been discussed in detail. However, later Jewish population movements to the Ottoman Empire are less well known. Still, over the years, many European Jews individually or in small groups continued to settle in Ottoman dominions for political, economic, or religious reasons. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the influx of Jewish refugees into the shrinking Ottoman lands rose again. This time, the migration was mainly caused by persecution in the newly independent Balkan states.”
Mark Mazower, writing in Salonica: City of Ghosts, that the Jews of Salonikka did not want the Ottoman Turks to leave the city and were opposed to Greek rule. “Few Jews believed they would be better off in one of the Christian successor states than they were in an empire where their loyalty made them trusted and none can have thought that Salonica in particular—-the city they dominated—-would develop to their benefit if it became part of Greece or Bulgaria. The rise of Balkan nationalism thus increased the intensity of the Jews identification with the Ottoman state,” he wrote.
Even when blood libels did arise within the Ottoman Empire, such as the infamous Damascus Blood Libel of 1840, it was the local Christians rather than the Ottoman Turks who instigated them. Following the Damascus Blood Libel, Sultan Abdelmecid issued an edict to forbid blood libels within the Ottoman Empire. Sultan Abdelmecid asserted, “For the love we bear to our subjects, we cannot permit the Jewish nation, whose innocence for the crime alleged against them is evident, to be worried and tormented as a consequence of accusations which have not the least foundation in truth.”
Given this history, it is hard not to have nostalgia for the Ottoman Empire. It represented a time period in history when Jews and Muslims worked and thrived together for the greater good. It was a time of peace, tranquility, and serenity regarding Jewish-Turkish relations. Many modern Turks also have nostalgia for this period in history. Let’s hope that one day Turkish-Jewish relations can return to this.
Why Turkey is not a safe country to travel ?
Although reluctantly, we have to admit it: Turkey is not a safe country to travel. The biggest hazard being that you may never want to leave. Read all about the dangers ahead!
Risk of an overdose of turquoise
With a coastline that spans more than 8,000 kilometers (approximately 5,000 miles), there is an increased risk of ending up at the beach. And those beaches are pristine! And the water is blue. Or worse…, turquoise. Turkey has beaches in all colors of blue. Colors that seem to change every day, depending on the weather, but always blue. So, if you’re not a big fan of blue – and in particular turquoise – stay away from Turkish beaches. You will be annoyed with the crystal clear water and the paradise beaches. In fact, there are so many beaches, that you will be spoiled for choice. Another risk here…, the stress of decision making! You can’t possibly try them all.
Risk of being immersed in history and culture
Turkey is not all about turquoise beaches and pristine bays. The country has a rich history and plenty of ancient sites to show for that. There are ‘ancient stones’ everywhere. Of course, a city like Istanbul is a cultural hub. And sites like Ephesus, Pamukkale, Mount Nemrut or Troy are world famous. The country has 16 sites inscribed on the World Heritage List! But you don’t have to visit those sites to be surrounded by history. It is simply everywhere. The smallest villages have ancient Lycian graves, rock tombs or remains of entire cities or civilizations. You will always be surprised at the amount of history that is just waiting for you to discover it. When in fear of having to deal with the beauty of history or culture when on holiday, you might want to reconsider visiting Turkey!
Risk of gaining weight
Beware! Turkish food is delicious! And there is food everywhere. Really… Even when you think you’ve just found the most remote and isolated spot in Turkey, someone will be offering you food or tea. And the problem is, this doesn’t just happen to you once. It happens every day. You will spend an entire trip surrounded by food stalls selling delicious (and healthy) street food. You will have to resist countless seaside restaurants serving fresh fish and meze. You will have to refuse complementary fruit plates after your meal or even when enjoying a drink or cocktail on the beach. Oh, and please DO NOT have a Turkish breakfast! It feels like dying and going to heaven. A traditional Turkish breakfast (köy kahvaltısı) is a feast! It is a table full of food, most of the times organic and it will take hours of whiling away the day enjoying those yummies. In short, the dangers of people serving you the tastiest meals are genuine. If you plan on starving yourself, don’t come to Turkey.
Risk of making Turkish friends (for life)
If you are the “I do not want to meet any local” kind of person, then you’re in trouble when visiting Turkey. Locals LOVE foreigners. They will go out of their way to make you happy. They are so welcoming and hospitable that they would not only feed you or even offer you a bed for the night. They might also be genuinely interested in who you are and what you love about Turkey. You might end up being the guest of honor at a wedding or meet the Muhtar (head of the village) for a cup of tea or Turkish coffee. Another thing…, Turkish people love hitchhikers and even people that are not hitchhiking but seem to have a long road ahead. It is almost part of a tradition. Makes sense, if you own a car and someone doesn’t, why not stop to take them along if you are going the same way? Of even better, why not drive your temporary guests straight to their destination? After all, that’s what being hospitable is all about! Indeed, there is a huge risk in Turkey of bonding with locals and making friends for life. If you feel uncomfortable making new friends, Turkey is not for you.
Risk of too much contentment
With all the good food, the lovely friendly people, beautiful nature, beaches, and bays and an always present aroma of history and culture, you risk feeling content and happy. Not just for a split second, but the entire time. And that is where the real danger of coming to Turkey lies… You may feel so good in Turkey; you never want to leave again. And if you do manage to drag yourself back home, beware, as you may be back sooner than you think! It’s magic!
I agree with the premise here. However, how many of the homicides in the US cities were gang related? How many involved the deliberate mass killing of tourists at the airport and around the main tourist sites? I'd like to go to Turkey, but I'd say there is more risk than a sightseeing trip to Baltimore.
saint Claus church in Antalya ….. where's Zionism there's terrorism
I love İstanbul . The most beautiful city in the world. I especially love Cihangir. Love and peace upon you. Great video. Thank you .
thnx you verry much buddy next month will be der in instanbull for 9months for work
Been three times was scared but wow love it ?
Greetings from Turkey you are always welcome to our country :)))
Hi I am planning on going Turkey this Friday will it be safe? Any safe places?
I just subscribed to your channel
thank you for the infos ? my fears to travel in Turkey was lessen ?
I love, love, love Istanbul!!! Thanks so much for this recording, Peter!
ISTANBUL IS ONE OF THE SAFEST CITIES IN THE WORLD.
I plan on going next year.
you should have your own tv channel i would definitely watch that.
you should have your own tv channel i would definitely watch that.
Thank you! Will plan a trip there soon…
are u kidding? its totally safe of course. you should change your title tho.