Ten Years Later- The Australian Tourist (Part 2 of 2)

"In the shadows of the Twin Towers, she just got swallowed up," was what Amanda Rigg's sister Jodie told "The Sydney Morning Herald."

Amanda Rigg was killed on Sept.10, 2001, by a suicide bomber in Istanbul, Turkey, named Uugur Bumbul who was with a radical left-wing militant, very much similar to Dev Sol, a '70s Turkish terrorist organization, which is amazingly still in existence today.

I was on the same street that Rigg , who was 22, was some 15-20 minutes prior to the attack that also killed two Istanbul police officers.

When I heard about how all air travel in the United States had bee grounded because of the stikes on the Twin Towers and The Pentagon, I realized if I had been hurt by the blast, my mother would have been unable to visit me in the hospital. Many people were also injured by the blast, which was seemingly meant to kill significantly more than it did. When I heard the noise from the blast, I noticed that the windows in my aunt's aprtment were actully vibrating.

The "SMH" story published on Aug. 4, 2007, also revealed some unsetlling information, which I had never known.

The "SMH" story said that the Australian government gave financial support to its citizens who were victimes of the bombings in Bali and London, but Rigg's family received no such funds. The explanation given by the Australian government, according to the "SMH," was that Rigg had not died in 'a mass casualty incident.'
The total cost of bringing her body back to Australia was $16,000.

In all four corners of the globe, even in Turkey, the incident was dwarfed by
9-11. Much of the TRT (Turkish Radio and Television) coverage focused on the Turkish citizens who had lost their lives on 9-11, including Zuhtu Ibis, a 25-year-old man who working on the 103rd floor on the World Trade Center.

I was walking the streets of Buyukada, an island off the coast of Turkey, on September 11th, and I was trying to read the article in the Turkish newspaper "Hurriyet" about the blast. I was completely oblivious to what had just happened back home in America.

There were still some uncertainities about what had happened in Istanbul in the media that next day. It had also been a very busy day for us, as we waited patiently for hours trying to resolve family business that was blocked by bureaucracy. By the time everything was resolved, it was around 4:00 p.m. in Turkey, which is typically seven hours ahead of America.

I was hoping as I walked up the hill to the house in Buyukada where I was staying that I would finally find piece of mind. It had only been three days since we had arived in Turkey. I was hearing televisions from the open windows in the old houses that grace the streets of Buyukada.

Something terrible was happening somewhere. Ordinarily, I would have perhaps poked my head in one of those windows and asked what was happening. Such behavior might seem rude in many places, but not on the friendly island, where many residents from Istanbul come to get away the hustle and bustle of one of the world's largest cities.
In fact, when a major soccer game is going on, those who walk the street- even at night, will ask people watching the game in their homes what the score is.

At the time, I could not have imagined that wthe sounds I was hearing were from those traumatic events of 9-11. It would take three hours to call my mom because of the phone line blockage in America, and inform her of the fact that we missed a serious blast in Istanbul as he was watching CNN, and trying to figure out 9-11 as the whole world was. And, it would be a long time before I found that piece of mind, yet alone fully understood the impact of those very long 48 hours.

PERSONAL NOTE: The first part of this series is on my sister blog "The Daily Vampire" (www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com); it is also where the second part of my series on the victims of September 11th will be.