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RE: Top 6 Things To See And Do In Istanbul
Outstanding tour! Right now though, if you are from the USA, it is not a good time to travel there; negotiations are going on for hostages being held as prisoners in Turkish prisons to be released. It is dangerous and touchy until this situation is resolved. I pray there's a positive end to it very soon and those held wrongfully will be released to their home countries. Turkey is an historically rich and beautiful country - your photos prove that. It reminds me to keep this country in my thoughts and prayers as they are in social change and a difficult economy as well.
I suggest you that dont believe everything you heard or listened on US media. Some of my family live in USA and its such a pitty that most of the Americans are manipulated by their own media all the time. If you really want to know the truth about somewhere, go and see with your own eyes, you will see that things are pretty different.
Yeah, the media feeds you crazy shit.
I agree with both of you about the mainstream media. In this case, however, it is not an instance of media misinformation; I think the media isn't saying much about it. The situation is that several Americans are being held hostage, one of which is an American Christian pastor, Andrew Brunson, and others are US non-criminal citizens - all being held on phony charges and going through sham trials. The Federal Government has consequently refused to allow the delivery of F-35 war planes; and just began imposing sanctions which will deprive Turkey of some basic necessities which the US has been providing. The US House of Representatives and the Senate have both voted this week on US policy bills regarding funding countries who are openly working against us, or, in this case, holding innocent Americans hostage. Turkey is a NATO ally and shouldn't be doing this; the US does not want to lose them as an ally or to kick them out of NATO, only to hold them accountable in such cases as these. It is a difficult and sensitive time of negotiation; in general, there would be no problem with travel there, but some groups in the Turkish government may make it difficult for President Erdogan to release the hostages without internal objection, and other groups may be hostile to Americans in general. Because Turkey is on rocky economic ground now, it would probably not be held against Erdogan if he released the hostages in order to secure a release from the sanctions. This is a very peaceful way for the US to pursue a release and also maintain future diplomatic relations on a positive level.
Turkey has been a progressive and westernized country for several decades; unfortunately, there are those groups who would like to subjugate the world to their radical ideologies, which often violate basic human rights. I am very pleased to see that in this type of situation, we currently enjoy an administration who truly does look out for the welfare of the little guy. Pastor Andrew Brunson has been in prison for nearly 2 years, just recently put under house arrest after much pressure and legal defense (see www.aclj.org) from the US; the others have been there longer. Let's hope these negotiations are successful, the captives released, and that Turkey will again be the country it once was where people of other nations and faiths are welcome and safe to be there.
I know it's a long post, but perhaps you will find it interesting and check into the situation and resource named.