By recent troubles if you mean the protests, rest assured that it's nothing to be worried about. At least from personal security perspective.
By swinging, do you mean the requirements like visa, work-permit, residency-permit, etc.?
While seconding on the previous friendliness of Turks one thing I would add which is also something that struck me from time to time is Turks in Istanbul sometimes in a way are more European than they are "Turkish" (I don't intend to imply that they are mutually exclusive, or anything special for that matter. Just a figurative compare/contrast. I'll err on political correctness for getting the message across.)
PS, I spent about 2 years in Istanbul and loved every bit of it.
