CEF, I appreciate you've had your problems in this area, they have been well documented on CBF, but I cannot recall any of these being as a result of thugs, murderers & rapists. I think that to say that, in effect, no lone western woman is safe in Turkey is totally unfair.
I speak as a lone western woman, who has holidayed, bought property & am now living here. I feel less vulnerable here than I did in many of the major cities back in the UK & I have been to most of them over the years.
I'm not blinkered to potential problems, nor do I look at Turkey through rose coloured spectacles, I simply keep my wits about me, just as I did when living in the UK.