Source: Time
Istanbul’s main airport was operating again on Thursday morning, less than two days after the devastating gun and suicide bomb attack here that killed at least 44 people. At the international arrival hall, workers replaced shattered panes of glass and affixed new tiles to the ceiling. Luggage in tow, travelers emerged from the baggage claim arriving from cities like Geneva, Mombasa and Riyadh, part of stream of travelers into and out of Ataturk airport, the third-busiest in Europe. At the near the taxi stand outside, black-clad police stood guard, guns at the ready.
The message was unmistakable: The machinery of trade and tourism in Turkey was still running, despite a recent wave of armed attacks that increasingly target ordinary civilians and foreign visitors. The attacks have devastated tourism, but the fact that the airport was open for business was a sign that the system has already adapted to a new normal of almost routine violence.
“We hope it will be over as soon as possible, but I think they’re not going to come to Turkey because of the attacks,” says Ahmet Sakar, 23, a clerk at a tourist agency booth in the arrival hall at Ataturk. “We’re waiting.”
In fact the airport reopened almost immediately following the attack on Tuesday night, with some flights continuing to land in spite of the chaos at the terminals. By contrast, it took twelve days for flights to fully resume at the main airport in Brussels following the March 22 attack there, which was claimed by ISIS militants. (Though ISIS hasn’t claimed the attack in Istanbul, Turkish and U.S. officials strongly suspect the terror group carried out the suicide bombings.)
Categories: Middle East, Terrorism, The Muslim Times, Tourism, Turkey