Kyrgyzstan: Istanbul Airport

Monday, June 28, 2021- evening

When I got off the plane in Istanbul, I was embarrassed to find myself being a gawking tourist over the “exotic” people around me. It was diverse in ways that made Prague feel like white bread. 

I was out of the Czech bubble. The Istanbul airport was a mosaic of people from the spectrum of humanity: Black, Brown, white; East Asian, Arab, Persian, Turkic, Indian. It was beautiful to hear all of the different languages floating by me and to see the different fashions. The Muslim women who covered the spectrum from completely covered to mostly covered adorned themselves in various patterns and colors. I appreciated all the different cultures, skin colors, and backgrounds mixing right there in the airport. 

Large signs pointed towards the mosque everywhere you went. The board for gate announcements of connecting flights were in English as well as the script of the destination: Hebrew, Arabic, and Cyrillic alphabet scripts scrolled across the screen. A large TV announced that the Prime Ministers of Israel and Egypt were set to meet this week.  

When I washed my hands in the bathroom, I read the large warning signs on the mirror: “Do not drink the tap water! It is unsafe to drink!” I had been planning on refilling my water bottle at the sink—I had just emptied it to go through security—and I was disappointed. Then I remembered an old lesson that I had learned in China: drinking out of the tap is privilege, and most of the world does not have such a privilege. The other sign reading, “Do not use this area for ablution, use the mosque for washing before prayer,” reminded me that I was in a Muslim majority country. 

There is something about going from a homogenous place (whether it be Boulder, mainland China, or Prague) that is mostly made up of one race or ethnicity, and stepping off the plane into another city that is absolutely not homogenous. Going from Prague to Istanbul reminded me of the full array of humanity, which provided a little jolt of needed discomfort. The switch was a little jarring, reminding this white person (me) of their minority status in the world: white people, despite our ethnocentric views sometimes, are not actually the center of the world. Imagine that (said ironically). Having these experiences remind me that the life I often live is one of bubbled privilege and comfort, a life that is distant from other parts of the world where diversity reigns. 

There is also something uncomfortable about going from a relatively wealthy or privileged place to a country that is not. 

Going from a country that participated / participates in and benefited / benefits from colonization to a country that was exploited during colonization is always a bit of a wake-up call. Some might call this discomfort with experiencing and living firsthand the inequalities of the world “culture shock.”

***Of course CZ has been on the receiving end of colonization as well (as it was occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Nazis, Soviets, and other Communist puppets as well. But CZ has also benefitted by being a historically colonial power in other ways as well (e.g., colonizing Bohemia and Morovia as well as parts of Germany and has benefitted from its European Union privilege.)***

The corridor from the plane to the airport had the announcement: “Welcome to Istanbul: Some cities are just too much for one continent,” referencing the fact that Istanbul spans the Bosphorus Strait and is considered to be located in both Europe and Asia. The rest of the airport was covered in large advertisements on billboards and TVs of the archeological and tourist destinations in Turkey.

I walked out to the main terminal. It was crowded and bustling. I was suddenly out of the European bubble where people have the resources to only wear N95 masks—I had gotten used to only seeing those masks since everybody only wears those in CZ—and back into the world where people don’t have that privilege, and people were wearing all kinds of cloth masks, if they were wearing a mask at all. There were lots of signs around saying “keep your social distance” as well as hand sanitizing stations and even workers in light blue vests that said “hygiene team” on them, but otherwise nobody seemed to care about coronavirus. I sat down at a café and got a vitamin water to quench my thirst.

The airport was huge and gaudy, clearly a project of the authoritarian Turkish government that reminded me of China. Large development projects often provide huge kickbacks to corrupt government officials. The government also has an incentive to put off an image into the international community that they are successful. These days, authoritarian governments like Turkey strive for a “low violence but not no violence” and “good image to the outside world” regime. 

Big airports symbolizing “successful” economies are one way to project success to the outside world. Some political scientists call this an “information autocracy” to explain that controlling information, rather than causing violence (which gives them a bad name/face in the international community), is the focus of contemporary authoritarian regimes. Big, fancy airports are one part of this information autocracy regime. From what I’ve heard of Erdogan’s growing authoritarianism, I think this is accurate for Turkey. Regardless of the reason, the airport was definitely one of the nicest and largest airports I’ve ever been in. It felt like I had to walk miles to get to my gate. 

I passed a very fake “Old Turkish Bazaar” with gothic arches and “traditional” foods like dried fruits and nuts, all very overpriced and appealing to the tourist as most airports do. 

Signs announced not to worry about COVID because “we disinfect your luggage” and “constantly recirculate the air.” 

I had been nervous about customs because I didn’t know if they’d let me into KGZ for tourism. I had to show my COVID test about 4 or 5 different times throughout the journey—to get on the plane and to get through security and customs—but otherwise I had no issues with customs or security and eventually arrived in the Bishkek airport safe and sound.

To be continued...