A death in Istanbul
Istanbul, Turkey
I AM SITTING next to a passenger on my MD-88, where the mid flight attendant jumpseat is actually the third seat in a row of passenger seats. Most flight attendants hate to sit here, feeling obligated to talk to passengers who are seated next to them, but I like this seat. I meet the most interesting people just by coincidentally sitting next to them for takeoff and landing.
Waiting for the captain to turn off the fasten seatbelt sign after takeoff, I initiate conversation with my seatmate. Noticing his mildly accented English, I ask the inevitable question, “Where are you from?” He is Turkish, lives in Istanbul. I tell him how much I love that city, describe my two-week holiday there years ago, mention the little hotel we stayed in, the owner who was so kind and charming.
He asks the name of the hotel. “Hotel Akgun,” I reply, “and the owner’s name was Vedat Akgun.” A strange look comes over the man’s face and he says gently, “I don’t know how to tell you this, but Vedat Akgun was murdered a couple of years ago.”
My eyes swim with tears and emotion swirls through me. I picture Vedat in his big Mercedes with vanity license plates ‘VA 1’ driving my friend Patty and me around Istanbul, proudly showing us his city. Now he would never see his children grow up, his daughter married. I picture him laughing, smoking, drinking coffee in the lobby of his hotel, none of us aware he had only 10 years to live.
For several days, I am haunted by my passenger’s information. I arrive home and search the internet for details about Vedat’s death. I stumble on to English-language Turkish newspapers. The murder is front page news.
But it wasn’t Vedat. It was his brother Nihat, a big walrus of a man with a mysterious look and a shady life. He was the owner of a carpet shop, rugs stacked to the rafters, a man of few words who just looked and smiled at Patty and me as we flipped through his carpets. Even back then we heard rumors about Nihat and the Turkish mafia.
Nihat was gunned down eating dinner in a restaurant he owned, a girlfriend at his side. The newspapers mention drugs, smuggling, Mafia connections, a stint in jail, the settling of old scores.
I find news of Vedat as well. Soccer coach, benefactor, philanthropist, alive and well and active in his community.
