I lived in Izmir in the 90's, and the vibe was actually fairly liberal. The locals seemed to feel pretty free, optimistic, and not overly worried about their government. Sad to see things regressing so much.
This is why the rest of Turkey calls İzmir "kâfir". They are the most secular bunch. They are also very pro-ataturk. AKP's projects for that region include bringing migrants to dilute the voter population.
This is nothing to do with the current issue at hand. Istanbul was just as liberal and nice of a city as anywhere else, but then the last decade happened.
Maybe if as a people we stopped thinking in terms of funny plots like "they are trying to dilute the peeps" and opened our eyes to the facts before our eyes, we'd be in a better shape.
Everywhere is regressing at the moment. Brexit, US protectionism, China's a dictatorship again.
It's like none of the 'leaders of the world' have read any history. Or they have, and are arrogant enough to think 'that won't happen now that I'M in charge'.
Turkey is special. They openly arrest Journalists opposing the government. Prisons in Turkey currently have the highest literacy rates in the country. People outside of Turkey who oppose Erdogan are threatened by either turkish accounts or even locals (I've seen this happening in a private whatsapp group from a school class I graduate a while ago where someone was threatened bodily harm if they did not retract statements about Erdogan)
It is an authoritarian, Orwellian government out of the book.
Sure, but Turkey is a little different. It's going from, for some people "no issues, I'm influential and popular, if perhaps a little controversial", to suddenly "I'm in jail now, for probably months".