1 May, 2024

I’m travelling with my friends Kelly and Peter, and we travelled to Turkey a few days before our official tour to get over the jetlag, align with the timezone and see some sites not available on the tour.

Today we planned to travel to Buyukada Island (which is one of the Princes’ Islands, a group of 9 islands in the Marmara Sea SSE of Istanbul). During the Byzantine era – which lasted from approx. 330 to 1453 AD – these islands were used as a place of exile. As with much of Turkey, over time they have become places for tourists due to the significant history and artifacts from the past 5000 years.

However our plans were derailed due to May 1 being Labour Day. In Istanbul, most of the freeway entrances into the city and around the city were closed (blocked by police and large trucks), and public transport cancelled. This was apparently due to a directive issued by the President of Turkey to stop gatherings and protests in Taksim Square, the symbolic centre, citing security concerns.

In 1977, the Taksim Square massacre occurred, which was an attack on left wing demonstrators leading to between 34 and 42 people being killed and between 126 and 220 being injured. It was estimated that 500,000 participants were at the square on that day.

(numbers from Wikipedia). None of the perpetrators were ever charged although around 500 protesters were detained.

We took a taxi to see if we could reached the spot from which the ferry to the islands was to leave, however after trying every option, the taxi agreed to take us back to our hotel. On the way we got close to the city and therefore stuck in traffic for longer. There were lots of members of the public walking through the city. We saw later that there were clashes between the police and protesters, and a handful of union leaders were allowed into Taksim Square for some photos.

One of the interesting things we have seen over the past few days when going to the breakfast area for meals is there have been a number of people with bandages and “masks” over their noses, heads, jaws. Looking into this, I have found that Turkey is a prime destination for medical tourism, especially for hair regrowth and dental procedures, orthopaedic and cosmetic surgery. According to the Medical Tourism Corporation, Turkey has world class clinics that don’t compromise on quality, medical practitioners with training in the USA, Canada and Europe, state-of-the-art clinics and no waiting list for treatment. The pricing is also cheap and therefore the country sees a large number of visitors annually.