Job Discussion Forums

[Baba Alex]

[Frizzie Lizzie]

I like Baba's signature. My eyesight's baaad, but I can read it.

[Golightly]

hope none of you guys were caught up in the Bakirkoy bomb - just heard of it over the wire.

[justme]

My husband and I missed that bomb by about 3 minutes!!

[jamessmart50]

I was in a restaurant with a student down the road. Deafening noise, the whole building shook and it was all pretty chaotic. Equally scary was the angry mob and gunshots afterwards!

I think the media were passing it off as a gas leak at first, but it clearly wasn't.

Despite all this, I think Istanbul's as safe as anywhere else. I'm sure more people get killed by deranged dolmus drivers than in bombs.

[ladonnaoscurata]

Thanks for all the responses everyone! The way I look at it, if it's my time to go, it's my time to go. It's no fun when you let fear dictate your life and I have every intention of reveling in the wonders of Turkey. So bring it on!!

On a somewhat different note, are there any Istanbul neighborhoods that would be wisely avoided??

[justme]

Bağcılar.

[yaramaz]

Apparently I live in a neighbourhood that everyone else has warned their friends not to go near (Elmadağ/Harbiye). In fact, most of my (Turkish) co-workers still recoil in horror when I mention where I live, and the fact that I actually walk to work (from scary Elmadağ to even scarier Dolapdere). Whups! However, I've had no trouble so far after almost a year-- less than I did in Erenk�y on the affluent Asian side when I used to get trailed by men in expensive cars asking me how much I charged (maybe it's the red hair?) and where one of my friends was nearly kidnapped and raped in glitzy Suadiye. I don't know if I have just been lucky or if the people who warn me have just assumed that a poor, villagey neighbourhood must be scary.

(I do have firsthand reports, however, that it can be a bit dodgy to walk through Tarlabaşı--- one girl was dragged by her purse down the street while the neighbourhood watched passively... but then, she didn't live there and maybe it would have been different if she hadnt been an 'outsider' of sorts)

[molly farquharson]

Turkish people tell me Galata is dangerous, but I have never found it so. of course, everyone knows me and I am not usually out late at night. I have heard of people being robbed on the street, usually tourists but sometimes foreign locals, but I haven't heard of anything like that in a while. Galata has changed a lot in the past few years.

[calsimsek]

[dmb]

For petty crime and breakins. I think Cihangir is pretty high up there. I guess the thieves think it is rich pinkings.i live in Pangalti, which is safe, but it is next to Dolapdere- which is apparently dodgy. Like any big bad city you get good parts next to bad parts.

Interesting that you say Pendik is dodgy, calsimsek. The first crime I ever heard about in Istanbul was in Pendik. An ex girlfriend was attacked in the subway under the railway.

[Baba Alex]