Is It Safe for Americans to Visit Turkey with Unrest Over ISIS?
The New Mosque in Eminonu, where a group of American sailors were recently attacked. (Photo: Yasar Unlutas/Flickr)
Melanie Trexler, 60, and Alexia Kahanovitz, 30, almost called off their October mother-daughter trip to Turkey, even though it would have meant missing the bonding experience and losing the money they’d already paid the tour company.
“I called my grandmother and she started crying,” because she was worried about them going there, said Kahanovitz, who went back and forth about canceling the trip. “She wanted me to cancel.”
Fighting with the terrorist group Islamic State has led to unrest along the Turkey-Syrian border. And now, anti-American sentiment has come to a head with an attack Nov. 12 on three sailors in Istanbul. A Turkish nationalist youth group, the Turkish Youth Union, or TGB, attacked the Americans, who were on leave from their ship moored in the harbor. A video the group posted shows the attackers throwing balloons with red paint at the sailors, who were out of uniform, and putting white sacks over their head. The sailors were in the tourist area Eminonu and were able to run back to their ship, while the assailants shouted at them, “Go home!”
“I was as shocked as anybody by what happened,” said Early Starkey, a Turkey travel expert, who runs a travel agency in Turkey. Starkey, who spends about half the year there, said he’s never seen that kind of anti-American sentiment in the country, not even during the height of the Iraq war.
Travel experts familiar with Turkey insist that touristed areas like Istanbul are generally safe. (Photo: Moyan Brenn/Flickr)
Twelve people have been arrested in connection with the assault, which has been denounced by the Turkish government. Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic also released a statement a few hours after the video was posted: “We condemn this disrespectful act, which is in no way tolerable.”
But these are exactly the kinds of worries that are keeping American tourists away from the country.
When Kahanovitz booked the trip with her mom — a week of traveling around the highlights of Turkey with Trafalgar Tours — she wasn’t concerned about her safety. But, as the news became filled with stories about the growing violence from IS, she realized that Syria was a lot closer to Istanbul than she had initially thought — a bit over 600 miles. It’s the kind of geography she didn’t learn much as a kid, but it’s exactly the kind of geography that more Americans are having to learn now. As they do, it’s keeping some of them away from the region.
“We’re not as busy as we should be,” said Starkey of his travel business, though he did emphasize that there were still a number of Americans traveling there throughout the summer and fall.
Since mid-September, the American and Turkish governments have been at odds over how to deal with IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL.
The extremist group has been violently fighting for control of the towns along the Turkish border with Syria. Turkey has been reluctant, though, to allow U.S. troops to use its bases as a launch pad for attacks or to let U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters travel through its land. In fact, in mid-October, Turkey launched a bombing campaign against the Kurdish PKK group, which it considers a terrorist organization, at the same time the U.S. was supporting the group to fight against IS.
Kurds at a solidarity rally with the Syrian city of Kobani in the village of Caykara, Turkey, on the Turkey-Syria border. Kurds rally daily in villages in Turkey on the border with Syria in solidarity with the embattled Syrian city of Kobani, which has been under a brutal siege by the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
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Unsurprisingly, this can create some awkward tensions between the countries. According to a recent survey, 64% of Turkish residents have an unfavorable opinion of the U.S.
Despite the violence on the southeastern edge of Turkey and this most recent attack in its largest city, the U.S. State Department hasn’t issued any travel alerts for Americans planning a visit to the country. These alerts are generally considered the key indicators on where to avoid. However, political concerns can also influence the official government position. It might strain international relations further if the U.S. were to suggest, in any terms, that Americans stay away.
Whatever the State Department has to say, the stories in the news have been enough to dissuade some Americans from visiting the country on the edge of the conflict.
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While the number of overall visitors from the U.S. to Turkey has been on the rise in recent years, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, this September did see a drop compared with September last year. Just under 90,000 Americans came into the country as tourists in September. (Official numbers for October are not yet out, though anecdotally there are even fewer Americans now.) As could perhaps be predicted, a sharp drop in American visitors — by almost half, down to around 250,000 for the year — was previously seen in 2002 and 2003 after the Sept. 11 attacks.
It may seem odd, then, that Turkey is attempting to push itself as a tourist destination for Americans. According to Gavin Tollman, CEO of Trafalgar Tours, the company has been working with Turkish officials to help them market the country. It’s long been a popular spot for Australians, who are drawn to the World War I battlefield in Gallipoli, and for Europeans, who enjoy relaxing on the beaches. (“It’s like the Cancun of Europe,” said Starkey.) But the country also has the historic cities of Troy and Ephesus and international hubs like Istanbul, which plenty of Americans are starting to discover.
Tom Brosnahan, who runs TurkeyTravelPlanner.com, just returned from Turkey before this recent incident, but said he always feels safe there — as safe as he does in New York. The issue for Americans is often that they’re simply unfamiliar with the region. “U.S. travelers think they know U.S. and European destinations, and can accurately predict the level of danger there, but they know they don’t know places like Turkey, so they feel they can’t predict danger there,” he said.
If you do travel to Turkey, it’s generally considered safer for Americans in the major cities on the western side of the country and in resort and tourist areas, said Starkey, like those along the Aegean Sea or in the famous (and beautiful) Cappadocia region. However, it was precisely in a western, tourist-heavy urban area that the three sailors were targeted on the 12th. It is rare for tourists to venture into some of the more remote eastern parts of the country. And it is advisable to stay away from the southeastern border with Syria right now. Of course, it’s highly possible that you’d have an entirely enjoyable visit to the main tourist destinations.
Cappadocia, one of Turkey’s most popular regions for visitors. (Photo: Tiberio Frascari/Flickr)
“No one can predict how a trip will go, whether the destination is New York, Jerusalem, Tampa, Tokyo, or Istanbul. But if you go, after a few days there, you’ll wonder why you worried,” said Brosnahan.
Women traveling alone can, at times, feel uncomfortable — though that’s true many places. And it is always advisable to follow local customs whenever you travel. Headscarves and covered shoulders are required for visiting all mosques.
Starkey suggests following the standard protocol for safe travel abroad: Register with the State Department’s Smart Traveler program, leave your itinerary and passport information with a friend back home in case you need it, stay alert (these are still big cities!), and don’t display expensive-looking jewelry or large amounts of money. Starkey recommends asking the hotel about any demonstrations going on and avoiding them, even peaceful ones.
Many Americans also choose to travel in tour groups or on cruises, which often dock in Istanbul. It’s estimated about 50% of the people on cruise ships that stop in Turkey are Americans.
I traveled to Turkey in mid-October and never felt unsafe, though I also was rarely by myself. Traveling in a large group can create a buffer — both good and bad. And the major tourists areas around the Sultanahmet in Istanbul or at destinations like Troy, Gallipoli, or Ephesus (which is a must-see) are also heavily manned and patrolled by local police and guards. But, if you really want to see the country, it’s worth getting out of these areas and exploring. Istanbul is a city of 15 million with restaurants, shops, nightclubs, and a massive river running through it. You don’t go to New York City just to visit Times Square.
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When I did walk to the local market in Izmir or go for a jog in the morning along the waterfront, I certainly felt out of place. I’m a blonde American in very American clothes. And trying to haggle in the bazaar can feel like an aggressive used-car deal gone bad, especially if you’re a small woman who doesn’t speak Turkish and not accustomed to that kind of negotiating. These things may not always be comfortable, but they’re not necessarily unsafe. Just chalk it up to the learning experience of traveling in new places.
Trexler, an executive director for United Way in upstate New York, wanted to take the trip with her daughter to spend time together and to visit somewhere she hadn’t been. Being in a group made her feel like she could do those things safely. “If it had been just the two of us, I would have canceled,” said Trexler.
Once they were in Turkey, though, the two couldn’t have been less concerned. One night they even went out to a nightclub and belly-danced with some local women until the early morning hours. “If we were going to be kidnapped, that would have been the time,” said Trexler.
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