Eighteenth anniversary of İstanbul synagogue bombings: 'I should always be on guard'

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Today is the 18th anniversary of the car bombings targeting the Neve Shalom and Beth Israel synagogues in İstanbul. Twenty-four people lost their lives and more than 300 were wounded in the attacks.

Özgür Kaymak, a political scientist working on İstanbul's religious minorities, interviewed Jews from different age groups in İstanbul for her doctorate thesis.

The 2003 bombings and the 1934 Thrace Pogrom were the two "dominant intra-communal selected traumas" that have a place in the collective memory of İstanbul's Jews, she found.

However, Kaymak said, her interviewees viewed the 2003 bombings differently than other atrocities against the Jews in Turkey, such as the 1934 Thrace Pogrom, the 1955 İstanbul Pogrom or the forced conscription of religious minorities during the World War II, also known as the incident of Twenty Classes.

"All other traumas/memories loaded with pain remain in the memories of the interviewees as incidents/attacks that the state carried out against its 'own citizens' and within its knowledge," she wrote on Avlaremoz.

"This is exactly why they stated that they had always lived with the feelings of 'resentment, insecurity and exclusion' after these adverse incidents.

"As the synagogue bombings were carried out by a foreign terrorist organization, they did not cause them to feel insecure towards their state despite creating a big trauma inside the community.

"I think this is why my Jewish interviewees didn't mention the explosions, except for only four of them."

Among the interviewees, a woman lost her family members in the explosions and the father of a man had not visited the synagogue that he had routinely visited on that day, said Kaymak. Also, family members of a man survived the explosions with minor injuries thanks to the prayer ceremony taking 15 minutes more than usual, she said.

"Every country has fascists"

"My father was like a believer of that synagogue. The other 25 people died. But it was not like the Turks did this. They were Palestinians. The second bombing was them, too. No Jew thought that the Turks did this. On the contrary, there was great support," said a 64-year-old man. "... As I said, let alone thinking, there were no feelings at all that the Turks did this. Every country has fascists..."

A 31-year-old man said, "They raked Neve Shalom in '86 with machine guns. I was nine years old. In the synagogue explosion in 2003, my mother was in the [Beth Israel] synagogue in Şişli. She got out. And my sibling went outside to eat cake. The explosion happens and my mom throws herself out somehow. She's looking for my sibling on the streets like crazy. Like a movie... They were very stressed, troubled times."

"I should always be on guard"

"In '86, Neve Shalom Synagogue was open to everyone. A search system was set up after a man went in and fired at everyone. My cousin jumped over the bomb in the second explosion. I think my grandmother's brother died in the first shooting. Maybe... I don't know. I was five years old and they tried not to tell me too much," said a 33-year-old woman. "I have the feeling that I should always be on guard."

"It wasn't a big trauma"

A 29-year-old man said, "In 2003, my whole family was at the synagogue. My grandfather, my father, my mother... My uncle and his children were at Neve Shalom ...  Nothing happened to any of them. They survived it with simple injuries.

"It was planned. They had calculated at what time the prayer would end. On that day, coincidentally, a man gave a speech and the ceremony lasted 15 minutes longer. They survived thanks to this.

"So, yes, it was traumatic... But, strangely, it wasn't much traumatic inside the community. People didn't see it as a big trauma ... Nobody attributed it to Turkey. Such incidents happen all over the world. It was actually what we expected.

"My father, my grandfather or my grandmother didn't say, 'We are leaving this country.' They continued to go to the synagogue the next week. I understand how big this was when I tell people abroad about it."

(AÖ/VK)