Thanksgiving weekend, Antalya, Turkey

Today I am thinking about stark parallels: traveling in the lap of luxury with some of my best friends—a vacation of a lifetime—in contrast to the hundreds of people dead and injured in Ankara, a mere five hour’s drive away from here, killed while engaging in a peaceful demonstration. Today is Thanksgiving Sunday in Canada and I can’t help but feel overwhelmed by how lucky I am. There’s nothing to do but recognize that we are the fortunate ones in this scenario, and what exactly did we do to deserve this?

But let me back up a bit. Yesterday morning in Ankara there was a planned peaceful protest of a group, primarily students, protesting the conflict between the Turkish army and Kurdish armed groups. I’m not going to pretend to know the extent of this struggle in Turkey (and Iraq and Syria), which goes back decades, but I do want to point out that no one should have to fear for their lives when they are marching in peace. No one has taken credit for the blasts, but we do know that there were up to two suicide bombers. The picture of this tragedy is blurry, however, because the government has put a clampdown on extensive media coverage. I have been scanning the different international news websites and there have been very few updates since last night. We aren’t getting witness statements; we aren’t getting reactive accounts from the surviving demonstrators; we are barely even able to post on Facebook that this is happening because the government has censored the major social media websites.

Suffice it to say that I am more than fine: we are about to rent a car and travel west along the Mediterranean, visiting the beaches and heritage sites along the way to Kas. And I feel invincible, traveling with three dear friends, like this amazing trip will never end—but it is all rather fleeting, isn’t it? I’m sure that yesterday morning, those demonstrators, likely our age or younger, also felt safe and secure in the fact that they would see tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. We are more than privileged for all that we have.

xor

P.S. To my Canadian friends: Don’t forget to vote!