I really liked Turkey when I was there.
Most of the folks I met were ‘Muslim’ about the way lots of British folks are ‘Episcopalian”. Go to church/mosque a couple of times a year at most (want to buy a carpet), weddings, funerals (great carpet, great price), and were friendly and gracious. This was back in ‘99, but I thought then that Istanbul (still Constantinople to me) was pretty chill; more about doing business than giving a fig about religion.
Should have bought a few rugs when I was there, too; about 1/20th the price of the same thing here.
Erdogan might be a jerk, but the Blue Mosque was about as beautiful a space as one could imagine, even though it was Hagia Sophia I was there to see.
Had a engineer co-worker at a former employer who was Turkish.
He was a riot!............😜
Istanbul is to Turkey, what New York City is to the US, it is not representative of the country, in the center of the country, it’s pretty much like Iran.