{"id":33280,"date":"2011-05-06T15:55:07","date_gmt":"2011-05-06T12:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=33280"},"modified":"2014-01-06T01:25:03","modified_gmt":"2014-01-05T23:25:03","slug":"istanbul-hotel-opens-at-site-of-al-qaeda-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2011\/05\/06\/istanbul-hotel-opens-at-site-of-al-qaeda-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Istanbul Hotel Opens at Site of Al Qaeda Attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ayla Albayrak<\/p>\n

\"
Mustafa Ozer\/AFP\/Getty Images The HSBC building in Istanbul after a terrorist attack in November 2003. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the world was digesting news of Osama bin Laden\u2019s death, Istanbul celebrated a symbolic victory over his terrorist network \u2014 a building al Qaeda bombed more than seven years ago reopened Monday as an upscale hotel.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In November 2003, an al Qaeda suicide bomber drove a truck packed with explosives in front of the building \u2014 then HSBC\u2019s headquarters in Turkey \u2014 and detonated it, killing three HSBC employees and wounding scores of others. The blast was part of coordinated week-long attacks that also targeted Istanbul\u2019s Jewish community and the British consulate, killing 63 people and injuring hundreds.<\/p>\n

The HSBC building suffered massive damage. Glass and piles of rubble littered the street in the aftermath. Seven years and $150 million later, it reopened as the Istanbul Edition hotel, a monument to modern design with 77 rooms and a luxury suite. The renovation was funded by Azerbaijani businessman Mubariz Mansimov, the building\u2019s owner. The result: one of Turkey\u2019s most luxurious and expensive hotels, with prices starting at $600 a night, according to the hotel\u2019s general manager Sedat Nemli.<\/p>\n

The glitzy ceremony with Turkish celebrities and officials attending came a day after U.S. President Barack Obama said Osama bin Laden was killed in a U.S. covert operation in Pakistan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is divine justice in the world,\u201d Turkey\u2019s Minister of Culture and Tourism Ertugrul Gunay said at the opening ceremony.<\/p>\n

A former HSBC employee recalled that immediately after the terror attack of 2003 the bank quickly moved its headquarters to a secret location, where work continued as usual. The bank didn\u2019t officially discuss the attack or its victims at the time. In 2007, HSBC placed a monument \u2014 a blood-red Dove of Peace \u2014 in front of its new Turkish headquarters to commemorate the victims.<\/p>\n

Mr. Nemli, the hotel manager, said the hotel represents a new chapter for the building and is a fitting tribute to al Qaeda\u2019s victims in Istanbul.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe memory of the terrorist attacks wasn\u2019t a problem to the investor or to us,\u201d Mr. Nemli said referring to the hotel management. \u201cThis building stands at a site that saw a lot of pain, but it has now breathed new life into the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

via Istanbul Hotel Opens at Site of Al Qaeda Attack – Emerging Europe Real Time – WSJ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ayla Albayrak As the world was digesting news of Osama bin Laden\u2019s death, Istanbul celebrated a symbolic victory over his terrorist network \u2014 a building al Qaeda bombed more than seven years ago reopened Monday as an upscale hotel.   In November 2003, an al Qaeda suicide bomber drove a truck packed with explosives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":33282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1094],"tags":[5450,5451,1208],"class_list":["post-33280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tourism","tag-gunay","tag-mansimov","tag-osama-bin-laden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}