Is Turkey safe?

Police

Generally it seems that people in Europe think that Turkey is more dangerous than European countries. For example when I said to my parents about the idea to go to Turkey they suggested if I could choose some other country instead of Turkey. Also I have read blog comments that people who are travelling this summer to Turkey are worried about the safety in Turkey because of the current situation in Syria. Some Turkish consider eastern Turkey unsafe but not because of the current situation in Syria.  In our trip to Eastern Turkey on April we were closest 15 kilometers to the Syrian border and everything was fine. Some Erasmus friends for example went from Ankara until to the border of eastern Turkey by hitchhiking and they also returned alive. After travelling to eastern Turkey and living 9 months in Ankara for me Turkey including eastern Turkey seems a safe country.

Before Turkey I had never seen big groups of policemen but here you can see them almost everyday in the center. Many times policemen are watching over demonstrations and once I saw 20 police cars heading fast to some destination. Still daily life is going nicely in peace. Turkish people for example respect much more possession of other people than Spanish. Here people do not steal or destroy your belongings right away if you leave or forget it somewhere.