Many people ask us about how safe it is in Turkey now, and whether it is possible to go hiking there during the May holidays. Apparently, two “moments” are implied: Turkey’s participation in the Syrian conflict and the attitude of the local population towards Russian-speaking tourists...
Let's start with the last one. We spend quite a lot of time in Turkey every year. We were here in the fall of 2015 and winter of 2016 - at the height of it, so to speak. And we have never noticed any negativity towards Russian-speaking tourists. Neither in the crowd of eastern markets, nor on resort embankments, nor in dark mountain villages. Turks are hospitable people, and even those who do not work in the tourism business and have no personal interest in international friendship behave very friendly and are happy to help dusty, wet and ever-hungry tourists (are you going on a hike?).
Now about Syria. Türkiye is a huge country. And in this huge country there have always been separate “hot” areas. But this did not stop us from going to Turkish resorts. The Kurdish movement has always existed, including in the calm “zero”, when only the lazy did not rest in Kemer. Yes, there are very real tensions in Syria right now. But in our opinion, it is far enough from the border with Syria to Antalya (600 km) to feel safe while hiking along the Lycian Way.
This winter in Turkey we had the opportunity to communicate with Syrian refugees. They were just preparing to make a desperate swim on an inflatable boat across a stormy sea in order to land on one of the Greek islands and surrender to the authorities there. They perfectly understood the adventurousness of their event, were afraid of the unknown and hated the war, not us. These were normal people, not the movie zombies that refugees are usually portrayed as in the news.
As you already understand, in our opinion, the situation in Turkey is heated to the limit only on TV. And on the May holidays we will go hiking in Lycia to personally soak up the sun, and then dive into the sea with honor :)