Postcard from Bishkek

“It was Twenty years ago today …” as the Beatles sang on the iconic Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band … and that phrase is often repeated whenever a twentieth anniversary comes round.

Well, today is the tenth, (not twentieth), anniversary of one of the days that, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt, said on another occasion, was a day “that will go down in infamy”.

If you’re a regular reader of my postcards, then you will be aware how many are prompted by anniversaries.   I was intending to miss today’s particular anniversary, but knowing how important anniversaries are here and the effect that this particular one has caused, bringing many changes to the world as we know it, (or as we knew it), it would be difficult to do so.

What’s more, I see that in these days of social media, no less an institution than National Geographic has started a theme: “Where were you on 9/11?”

This is, of course, a reference to the question “Where were you when you heard that President Kennedy had been shot?”  This question was so often asked that it spawned a sequel: “Where were you when you were first asked ‘Where were you when heard that President Kennedy had been shot?’”.

I remember that day in November, 1963.  It was already evening back in the UK, and we had a power cut, so my mother, brother and myself were sitting in what we called our “front room”, but these days might be called a “sitting room” or lounge, in front of a roaring coal fire.  A transistor radio gave us the news. Although I was really too young to appreciate the significance of the event and what it might mean for us and the world in the future, I knew that I was living through a momentous moment in history … if only because nothing like this had ever happened before in my lifetime and I could see the reaction on the faces of others.

Well, when it comes to September 11th, 2001, I also remember that moment clearly.

Once again, it was evening, although the working day was just starting on the East Coast of the United States.  I was sitting at my computer in the office and the phone rang.  A friend was on the other end and he asked if I remembered visiting the Twin Towers in New York and eating on the restaurant on the 102nd floor..  “Yes,” I replied, “why?”  “Well someone has flown a plane into the side of the building and it’s on fire.  It’s not clear if it was an accident … or what … but it’s all over the news and you might want to go up to the flat and watch it.”

At first, I couldn’t take it all in … but I went upstairs and turned on the TV.  Sure enough, there on all the channels, (BBC, CNN, Fox News, not to forget all the Russian news channels), normal programming had been suspended as live feed from cameras around the city of New York broadcast the scenes that were unfolding.  Shocked, I watched fascinated, but eventually decided that I could watch no more, so descended the stairs to the office once more and back to my work.

The phone rang.  This time I was told that someone had flown a plane into the second tower, so it almost certainly wasn’t an accident, a pilot who was drunk or had lost his way, but it looked like it was a concerted terrorist attack.  Maybe I ought to go back up to my flat and catch the news again.  I did, and once again found it distressing enough that I sought the refuge of my office once more.

The phone rang.  This time I was told that one of the towers had collapsed … and the other may soon go as well.  I climbed the stairs to my apartment, and this time I hung around long enough to see the second tower collapse.

Although that seemed traumatic enough, I missed, most of the really upsetting coverage … it was only some time later, when we saw the documentaries, that I eventually saw the more harrowing scenes, accompanied by the distressing accounts of those who lived through the events. Later I was talking to an ambassador of a western country who was serving in Moscow at the time, and he told me how he could not watch the coverage.  He knew people who worked in the World Trade Centre and found himself wandering around his flat trying not to watch the news, in the same way that I had been going up and the down the stairs between my apartment and the office.

The following day I was supposed to attend a conference at the Hyatt about the development of tourism in Kyrgyzstan.  It seemed so futile in the light of what had just happened, but life must go on … and so off I went.  The speakers all expressed their sympathy with the United States and its people for the calamity that they had experienced.  There was a call for a minute’s silence and we all stood and bowed our heads.  It was a real minute’s silence … heartfelt and genuine … not just the typical notional short period, maybe 15 or 20 seconds with shuffling and whispering.  We were all in shock.

Some clients rang from around the country and insisted on cutting short their trip – which was understandable under the circumstances, but in some cases a futile gesture as air space around the world, not just over America, went into lockdown.

The Americans decided to evacuate all their citizens from Kyrgyzstan, which seemed pretty galling at the time because there didn’t seem to be any threat to American interests emanating from Kyrgyzstan they were happy to leave people in place in neighbouring Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, but I could see some logic behind the decision – Kyrgyzstan is not the easiest place to travel to or from fewer options available from either of our neighbours …

The events of 9/11 had another direct impact on us in Kyrgyzstan … Presidents Akaev and Bush came to an agreement to establish an air base here in Bishkek as an outpost to help in global operations in what was to called “The War on Terror”.  The base has had an interesting history, and has an uncertain future … but for the moment, it is still here.

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There is one thing, however, … this is one anniversary for which we won’t be having a cake in the office.

Tags: Expat, History, Reminiscences