Turkey - The Touristed Southwest

Things are benign where foreign dollars flow. But visitors should stay aware of recent incident reports. Terrorist activity was mostly designed to frighten tourists off, rather than actually kill them. Most of the paranoia goes back to the summer of 1994 when the PKK conducted a series of hand grenade attacks against establishments frequented by tourists in Antalya and planted at least six hand grenades in beaches around Izmir and Kusdasi. The Antalya attacks injured Turkish nationals and tourists, as well as causing extensive property damage. In early 1999 there was a wave of bomb attacks after Ocalan was caught and brought back to Turkey. The situation has calmed since the PKK announced a cease-fire, but don't get your hopes up. TIKKO are still around and cease-fires have a habit of ending. The good news is that crime against Americans is rare in western Turkey other than the usual pickpocketing and petty theft. Generally speaking, you will be perfectly safe. I mean, hey, there should be another 8 million much fatter and slower tourists to give you cover.