SURVIVING TERROR IN TURKEY
For Canadians in Istanbul, a wave of attacks raises questions about life abroad,
ISTANBUL— Edmonton native Jennifer Gaudet has invested a lot in this city. Not long after first visiting Istanbul in 2006, she opened a café in the historical Sultanahmet district. Now, she runs Jennifer’s Hamam, a company that sells handwoven Turkish towels known as pestamels out of two stores and a showroom in the Arasta Bazaar.
The past 12 months have been hard on residents of this megacity, something Gaudet knows better than most.
On Jan. 12 last year, a suicide bomber killed 13 tourists — a dozen German and one Peruvian — a few hundred metres from her store. Since then, the retail side of her business has fallen 85 per cent.
“My neighbourhood has become a ghost town; lots of businesses have closed down. If you are a business that depends on walk-by traffic, you were in trouble a long time ago,” she says. “I’m lucky in that a lot of my clients are overseas.”
A series of attacks by Kurdish separatists and Daesh extremists in recent months have killed dozens in Istanbul and struck fear into the city of 15 million. Though most casualties have been locals, Canadians have not escaped the carnage.
An attack on the Reina nightclub in the early hours of New Year’s Day killed 39 revellers, among them Alaa al-Muhandis from Milton, Ont. At least one Canadian was injured in an attack on the city’s main airport in June that took 45 lives. Both raids were carried out by cells linked to Daesh (also known as ISIS or ISIL) targeting Istanbul’s international character.
The hunt for the Reina nightclub perpetrator revealed the extent to which Daesh extremists have infiltrated Istanbul. During the investigation, 20 Daesh cells were uncovered — in just three districts of the city.
Almost $200,000 (U.S.), weapons and passports stashed at separate locations were uncovered during the pursuit of one man, offering the outside world a frightening glimpse into the degree of jihadist organization here.
It’s been a swift and painful fall from grace for Istanbul. A leading candidate to hold the 2020 Olympic Games as recently as 2013 and the world’s fifth mostvisited city two years ago, terrorist attacks and political upheaval have soured international visitors. Tourism fell 23 per cent last year, the first time Istanbul saw a decline in 16 years.
For Melanie Mehrer, an artist from British Columbia who now lives close to the Reina nightclub, the city is more dangerous.
“There is increased security everywhere,” says Mehrer, who flew to Canada the day of the airport attack in June. “As a foreign-looking (white) female, I don’t get stopped so much, just if I am carrying a suitcase or a large bag. I am trying not to let it stop me from enjoying the city — I just avoid crowds.”
The signs for Istanbul have been there, hiding in plain sight: Salafist rebel leaders, foreign jihadists and extremists travelling between Syria and their home countries have for years used the city as a stopoff point. Istanbul was even home to a store selling Daesh iconography for a time — not far from where the Reina attacker was apprehended on Jan. 16 — before it was closed in 2015. Daesh-supporting students have clashed with others on university campuses. The Canadian government’s travel advice website classifies Turkey as a destination in which to “exercise a high degree of caution.” Yet life must go on. “I have a large family of staff and a huge family of weavers who depend on this business,” says Gaudet, whose daily commute is a seven-minute walk in the shadow of the 17th-century Blue Mosque. “Of course, I’m sad, but I don’t dwell on it.”
That’s an attitude expressed by the people who run the stricken Reina nightclub. “If we don’t reopen then people will say that terrorism has won,” owner Mehmet Kocarslan says. “But there are 39 people missing, gone, so we have made no decision yet.”
Security concerns haven’t stopped Canadian former NBA player Anthony Bennett, who signed with Istanbul basketball powerhouse Fenerbahce last month.
“I got a lot of information about this place. I learned how big a club Fenerbahce is. Especially the passion of the fans,” the Toronto native told the team TV station after touching down in Istanbul.
A diplomatic rapprochement with Russia means that tourists from that country are expected to begin returning to Turkey this year. In the streets and squares of the Sultanahmet district on a recent, chilly morning, many tourists were Arabs, who have begun to take the place of Western visitors.
Mehrer says her network of friends and a fulfilling job makes it difficult to think about leaving Istanbul. “I did speak to my employer about cutting my contract short after the Reina attack, but after a few weeks of thinking about it, I realized I am not ready to leave,” she says.
“To be honest, I am also afraid of what North America is going to look like with (President) Trump in a year . . . Canada was attacked this week. I think the world is on edge. So, where it is totally safe?”