[magduf]

Yes, I absolutely did mean this. Just read the comment I responded to: "Some people tried to go to Greece on boats which many of them died on the way."

Obviously, those people thought it was enough of a hellhole that they risked their lives to take boats to Greece, and died!

>Those academics who stayed in Turkey despite their credentials, probably have such a preference.

I'm not talking about anyone who's staying there. I'm talking about people who are actively trying to escape and are risking their lives to get out. Obviously, they're perfectly willing to abandon those cities "full of thousands of years of history". Besides, western Europe is chock full of other cities with thousands of years of history that don't have the problems Turkey has, and that's where these people were headed to, not the US or Canada.