News in Russia

From the minute I stepped into the hotel lobby in Moscow, I felt at home. The young receptionist with the swanky hair style asked if I had a Turkish Airlines frequent flyer card after seeing my passport. I said 'Why yes,' and handed it over. (Note to self: Positives about cluttered purses include ability to access any random airline card on call.) I was to get points thanks to an agreement between SwissOtel and Turkish Airlines. Very well. Kaching, kaching...

Another young man, with an accent I recognized from my subway line in Brooklyn, helped carry my luggage to my room. I plunked the large green Samsonite on the couch. This rugged bag had carried me back and forth between Pennsylvania and Istanbul during my student years. To fight my jetlag, I turned on the TV. I started zapping and gazing down the cardboard left by my bed side, listing available channels.

To my welcomed surprise, there were four Turkish channels listed. It dawned on me that the surge of Turkish businessmen carrying out deals in Moscow had made the hotel include these channels as a gesture to its guests. And we were so close to Istanbul - by American geography standards - that it may have been just the local cable package.

For the next four days, I lived in a small piece of my homeland within a vast foreign city. Every time I stepped back into my room to grab a notebook, to change clothes, to rest, I turned on the TV and got stunned, horrified and cried. Channel after channel showed the news about the 17 Turkish soldiers ambushed on the Eastern border, their funerals and people beating their chests in an outcry about the ongoing problem of terrorism. The news programs were interspersed between comedy series with sub-titles. The King of Queens was not enough to distract me from the documentary on NTV, where past terrorism victims were being interviewed.

Outside was the impressive Kremlin buildings and Red Square with its dream-like captivity. The conference hall was the most elegant I had seen. The event organizers buzzed around, being helpful, keeping cheery, friendly faces, hosting the speakers with the utmost generosity. Inside, my people were hurting, mourning and bracing each other with more fear than hope.