An icy wind and cloudy conditions had greeted our arrival back in Istanbul… At the Black Bird hotel, we discovered that the top three floors of the hotel had been damaged by the incessant rain that had fallen while we had been away…!! Our booking had been transferred to a hotel around the corner, and we were issued with complimentary dinner and sauna slips to make up for the inconvenience…
The Sehzade Mosque stands close to our hotel...
We had a full day to kill before Debbie’s flight, and as set off to the nearby district of Lelali, just across from the Aksaray area that we were staying in… This is the Garment and Textile District of Istanbul, and we spent a few hours browsing through the hordes of shops that line every street in the area…
A beautiful and extensive display of butterflies in the arrivals hall of Ataturk Airport...
We had debated whether or not to visit Taksim Square again, just a few kilometres away, which is the tourist hub of the city, where all long distance buses depart from, ferrying visitors to either of the two major airports, or down to resorts on the coast… The square is lined with pedestrian walkways and a large police detachment is always on duty there…
As we had already made a number of trips there we opted instead to spend a quiet day in the area around our hotel…
Co-incidence...?? I think not...!! Made me think of my own "GS", waiting patiently for me down in Marmaris...
Later that evening, after an poignant and emotional farewell, Debbie boarded her flight home, and I made my way back to the hotel… I gave thought to the last week we had spent together… I would miss her ready smile and sense of humour in the long days ahead…
Preparing for passport control and a long flight home...
Early the next morning, a suicide bomber, targeting a bus filled with policemen who were changing shifts in Taksim Square, blew himself to smithereens, injuring 15 policemen and 17 civilians…
After watching visuals of the scene of the attack on Turkish television, I wandered out onto the streets to see what the reaction of the general population was to this incident… Two fighter jets zoomed over the buildings above me, barreling out over the sea, then turning and coming back over the city again… This went on for about half an hour…
I sat down at a little restaurant on Ataturk Boulevard and watched the people around me… It all appeared quite normal…!! Informal traders were unpacking their ware to sell on the pavements, and business in the shops was beginning to pick up as more and more buses and taxis disgorged passengers in the area…
People laughed and smiled as usual, and when I asked what had happened in Taksim Square, most of them just shrugged and said it was “the work of the Kurds”… As if this was a normal Sunday morning occurrence…!!
“They only target the Government installation I was told… Tourists are safe here…!! Do not worry my friend…” I was told…
“How do you account for the fact that more civilians were injured than police officers…?” I asked…
“Insh’allah…!!” came the reply, hands spread wide in supplication, shoulders shrugging… “It is the will of God…!!”
The bus that was targeted by the suicide bomber in Taksim Square, Istanbul... (Pic. from SkyNews website.)
Being a strong believer in fate myself, I could understand where he was coming from… Still, it felt weird sitting in a bustling city streets, knowing that a few kilometres away, a suicide bomber had been “at work”…
It has since come to light that he was indeed trying to board a bus filled with policeman, and was actually shot before he detonated the bomb…
The Kurdish people inhabit the southeastern parts of Turkey, as well as the border areas of Syria, Iraq and Iran, and have been “campaigning for an independent homeland for years…The Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) have claimed responsibility for the bombing…
“So you do not concern yourselves with any of this…?” I asked my waiter…
“No, it is the government’s problem…!! We as everyday Turks can do nothing to change the situation…!!” He went on to say, “The Americans and the Israelis arm the Kurds, so what can we do…!! If this was Iran, this would not be happening… They have a strong President, who does not take any trouble from the Americans…!!”
That statement opened up a whole new barrel of worms, and I was not about to get into any political discussions with him, nor give him my own personal take on what I think the Americans should do, although I instinctively knew that he would agree wholeheartedly with me…
“Are you not afraid that it could happen right here, on this very street…?”
“No…, there is no defense against such a thing…!! There is no point in being afraid…!! They could strike anywhere and nobody can stop them once they are happy to die…!!”
What happened next seemed as though it had been scripted for a movie…
A lumbering green bus, smoke billowing from its exhaust, passed by, and as it braked for the traffic lights, its engine backfired loudly…
My loaded fork froze halfway to my lips, and my heart nearly stopped…!!
For a second it seemed as though I had blundered into the middle of a public aerobics exhibition…!! Half a dozen Turks were doing push-ups in the area close to my table…
A small group of women had dropped their bags and were touching their toes, their heads tucked between their knees…
A shoe-shine boy’s brushes flew through the air and landed under my table…
Tinkling glass could be heard from a few of the restaurants in the immediate vicinity, confirming that waiters had lost control of their trays…
Utter pandemonium…!!
Then it was back to Southern Turkey to resume my own journey...
And then, barely seconds later, mass-laughter, as dozens of people fell about laughing, pointing at each other and re-enacting the reactions of the people they had witnessed around them…!!
An elderly man shook his fist in the direction of the departing bus, shouting curses, and then turned around with a huge smile on his face…
Minutes later, everything was back to normal… Sort of…!!
I looked over the heads of the passersby, catching the eye of my waiter friend, and raising my eyebrows, gave him a little smile…
He grinned back at me, put a hand over his eyes and shook his head from side to side, then turned away and went inside, a sober expression on his face…
Not quite as uncaring as he had been a few minutes before…!!
Despite the merriment that the back-fire had caused, I could feel the underlying tension in the people around me…
This is an unusual occurrence for Turkey, but I wondered how the public in Iraq, Pakistan and other “hot-spots” in the Middle East must feel, every time they went out to a market, or attended prayer in their local places of worship…
Did they consider that they may never be back to see their families again…? How do they cope with that…?
Perhaps “Insh’allah”, is the only mental protection you can have in times and places such as these…
©GBWT 2010
Hey Ronnie
“God Willing” you will be safely back on the road soon and happily leave the craziness of the Kurds and any other madmen wishing to commit suicide and kill you at the same time. Interesting how they pevert even their own scriptures and suddenly think that suicide and killing is a noble cause.
Stay safe and ride with a smile on your dial.
GB, get on the Big Fella and start riding, quickly……
There might be fate involved but don’t temp it!!!
Holidays are over and you need to start working again – how do you think I must cope with a blogg now and again, my day battles to start without a good morning from you!!!!
Be safe now!!!
BIG kisses
K
Is there no rest for the wicked…?? Ok, then…!! I did 640 km today, does that help…? R.