Fatal blast sends Istanbul’s pulsating heart reeling

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14th Nov, 2022. 08:28 pm
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Istiklal Street frequently gives me the impression that life itself is there.
It is congested all day long, and you frequently have to navigate past crowds of people.
Old footage from yesterday’s explosion began to resurface online in the hours following the catastrophe.

Although brief, the video was graphic. The sound of an explosion suddenly caused the Sunday afternoon throng to disperse. People fled for their life as they saw orange flames and black smoke billowing into the sky.

Istiklal Street is lively once more after a few hours. On either side of the roadway, two tables have been set up, covered in fabric, and topped with red carnations. These islands cause visitors to halt and look more slowly. They could see in the videos exactly what transpired on Sunday. Right now, there is a somber atmosphere.

The grey pavement tiles have already been cleaned. The physical evidence of the devastation has been quickly cleared away at ground level.

The destroyed bench, where police suspect the assailant buried the bomb before fleeing, has been replaced with a low, velvet-covered podium. But when you look up, the broken windows reveal what transpired here.

Istiklal Street frequently gives me the impression that life itself is there. It is congested all day long, and you frequently have to navigate past crowds of people who are window shopping.

Tourists who come to buy boxes of sweet baklava from traditional stores make it a significant point of interest for them. You can always hear the clanging of a classic Turkish ice cream vendor.

Turkish families use it as a gathering place to buy and enjoy the street entertainment. Bars and eateries abound in the lanes that branch out. It is the major vein leading to the city’s beating center.

Turkey’s capital city has previously experienced terror. More than 500 people were killed in attacks carried out in Turkey between 2015 and 2017 by Islamist terrorists and Kurdish rebels.

A horrific suicide bombing occurred even on Istiklal Street. Old footage from yesterday’s explosion began to resurface online in the hours following the catastrophe.

Suleyman Soylu, Turkey’s interior minister, claimed that preliminary investigations indicated that the PKK Kurdish separatist group was behind the attack on Sunday, although no group has yet claimed credit. He assured that whoever was responsible for the bombing will face “shortly” from Turkey.

The PKK – the Kurdistan Workers’ Party – denied any role in the blast, saying “we will not directly target civilians”.

The blast has created a fresh nervousness on the streets of Istanbul. “I believe in what the minister says, 100%,” says Burhan Kizilkaya. He runs a small restaurant just off Istiklal Street. “It’s clearly a terrorist attack. They killed innocent people, and children. They should all be executed. I think though security here is much tighter, thanks to our government, so I don’t think the darkest times will return.”

Nesim Celik was born in Turkey but has Kurdish ancestry. He does not think that the PKK was behind the assault.

“Now everybody is concerned that the period of heavy violence might come back here,” he tells me. “They say as the elections approach next June the bombs will return. I didn’t feel like that. But after yesterday, now I do.”

Here, memories are still recent and unprocessed. Just 20 meters from the explosion, Mecit Bal’s son was standing in the street in front of their modest family-run shop. He was thrown to the ground by the force, according to his father.

“People were running into him, hitting him and pushing him as they fled. But he could hardly feel it. There was blood everywhere. When I returned I saw two bodies lying on the floor, right here. I locked up the kiosk and took my son home. This morning my family didn’t want me to come back here, but I’ve been running this shop for 40 years. I open at 6am every morning. This street shouldn’t be like this.”

At the time of the explosion, Adem Tursun was at the bottom of Istiklal Street.

“Suddenly I started seeing ambulances,” he said, “and I thought there was a serious health issue going on. People were shouting, ‘there’s been an explosion’. But it was clearly something extraordinary, because so many ambulances passed by so fast.”

Why was he back here so soon, I wondered. “Because I wanted to see, I was curious. I cross this street every day. This is where life is, I love this street.”

Fatal blast sends Istanbul’s pulsating heart reeling

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