I had a short trip back to Istanbul this June. When I last visited in 2016 I had cause for concern. My concern was, it seems, ill-founded and poorly judged and my hopes that things would improve were granted. In 2016 there had been an attempted military coup and since then things generally have gotten worse; an economic crisis in Turkey created by the financial ignorance of its for-life president Tayyip Erdogan, the proximity to a tragic war in Ukraine and the creep of more extreme elements of Islamic culture and values. The liberal ideals of Ataturk are sadly being eroded. Yet the crowds have returned, the bazaars are doing great business and the mood is very optimistic. On my previous visit to Istanbul in 2016, I got five lire to the pound, this time I got 20.
For me, the stand-out feature of this trip was the explosion in medical tourism. On the Turkish Airlines flight out from Dublin, I talked with two thirty-somethings from Belfast who told me they could not eat or drink on the flight as they were due to have “a procedure” a few hours after their arrival. They were both having breast augmentation and the price “was a bargain” compared to UK clinics. Their stay was only a few days “if all goes well” and there would be little time to experience the delights of the historic city. They weren’t friends meeting for the first time at the airport having found each other in an online support group set up by the Turkish clinic. They looked so alike I thought they were sisters when my better-informed wife pointed out that their lips, eyebrows, and cheekbones had all been “done” in a standard design that risks dull conformity to an idealised beauty. They identified two men at the back of the plane who were also getting procedures but were unsure what.
We arrived at the new Istanbul Airport (İstanbul Havalimanı) on the Black Sea coast opened in 2019 and now one of the World’s biggest and busiest. It is impressive by any standards and certainly…
