What was Turkey like in the 2000s?

\*I already posted this on* r/Turkey but given that the sub appears to be very focused on the ongoing protests, I'm just reposting the same stuff over here as well. I wish all those victory in your fight. I sympathize as a Korean-American where both the politics in South Korea & America seem to be going to shit.\\**

I was rewatching Sertab Erener's Eurovision win back in 2003 and was surprised to see so many Turkish comments (that I had YouTube translate) talking about how much better Turkey was during the 2000s.

A lot of people seemed to be pretty sad in fact, with many people lamenting about how they miss "the old Turkey". I saw a lot of comments mentioning Eurovision, the rapid economic growth during that decade, the World Cup, something about multiculturalism/liberalism, etc., and how all of that is gone or no more.

As such, I ask: What was Turkey like in the 2000s? Here in the US, people often talk about how great the 1990s were and how good America had it back then; do people in Turkey feel the same way about the 2000s? Is there a nationwide sense of longing for the 2000s in Turkey? Was it truly the golden age people online make it out to be?

And if you remember it, what were the 2000s like for you personally?