Istanbul Hotel Opens at Site of Al Qaeda Attack

By Ayla Albayrak

As the world was digesting news of Osama bin Laden’s death, Istanbul celebrated a symbolic victory over his terrorist network — 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 in front of the building — then HSBC’s headquarters in Turkey — 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’s Jewish community and the British consulate, killing 63 people and injuring hundreds.

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’s owner. The result: one of Turkey’s most luxurious and expensive hotels, with prices starting at $600 a night, according to the hotel’s general manager Sedat Nemli.

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.

“There is divine justice in the world,” Turkey’s Minister of Culture and Tourism Ertugrul Gunay said at the opening ceremony.

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’t officially discuss the attack or its victims at the time. In 2007, HSBC placed a monument — a blood-red Dove of Peace — in front of its new Turkish headquarters to commemorate the victims.

Mr. Nemli, the hotel manager, said the hotel represents a new chapter for the building and is a fitting tribute to al Qaeda’s victims in Istanbul.

“The memory of the terrorist attacks wasn’t a problem to the investor or to us,” Mr. Nemli said referring to the hotel management. “This building stands at a site that saw a lot of pain, but it has now breathed new life into the city.”

via Istanbul Hotel Opens at Site of Al Qaeda Attack – Emerging Europe Real Time – WSJ.