Regina family narrowly escapes suicide bomb attack in Turkey
'Nothing from now on is going to surprise me,' says Regina man Hasan Topal
Hasan Topal dropped his family off at the airport in Regina, expecting them to travel to visit family in Turkey.
Hours later he was frantically searching social media to find out if they had survived a bombing at the Istanbul Ataturk airport.
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"I started scrolling down and tried to find the details of how serious it was," said Topal.
"I was very much concerned about my family because I had sent them on the same day from here to Istanbul."
His family had left the airport just five hours before the attack. Other families were not as fortunate.
The death toll in Istanbul after yesterday's attack is rising. At least 42 people were killed and more than 200 were wounded.
For Topal, what is most frightening is how accustomed people are becoming to attacks of terror.
"It's happening in Ramadan. The month of peace and charity and love and tolerance," said Topal.
"It is so unfortunate, but apart from condemning what's happening, which is the least we can do now, I think what's happening is that we are becoming so accustomed to what's happening. This is not the first [attack]."
Topal places some of the blame on the Turkish government, who he said had silenced journalists in the past from writing about attacks of terror.
He wants to see more analysis and preventative measures to keep Turkey and other parts of the world safe.
"After a certain while, it's only those who are victims of the explosions that keep track of what's happening," said Topal.
"Other than that, society gets so accustomed to living with incidents that are so unusual, so abnormal, so cruel, like this one.
"I cannot think of any limits that will stop this, even for a while, even the month of Ramadan. Nothing from now on is going to surprise me."