We were in Istanbul at the beginning of May. I felt completely safe, in fact never even thought about "security" when I was there. It just never came up. We had even considered changing our tickets before we went, due to the tourist area bombing.

In Cappadocia, the security was extremely stringent, even passport checks on the road for cars. At Nevsehir airport they checked cars with mirrors before you could enter the airport. But I still never felt unsafe. I felt bad for the restaurant and hotel owners we talked to, they said with the tensions with Russia, and the general unrest, tourism and their business was suffering.

I would not hesitate in a minute to transit, or go back the the country. It was one of the best vacations I ever had.

Lets talk about the United States and Istanbul security for a brief moment. My G/F and I did not get SSSS on our boarding passes on return. We flew domestically in Turkey, and back in the states we take hidden city trips often (purchase tickets but not continuing to the final destination). No SSSS for us. Also, in Istanbul, flight bound for the US require additional security at the gate, that backs up people, and causes a huge mess. There were 4 additional "passport checks". Its pure theater, as one of the guys asked me to show a round trip ticket, when I couldn't, he let me go through anyways. The third guy in this show takes my passport, makes a mark on the page, hands it back to me, while the fourth guy watches. Then I have to go to the fourth guy, where he takes my passport, opens it, and looks at the mark the third guy just made. These two guys are less then 5 feet apart.

We are all Istanbul.