Every day we are bumping into news about violence… And they somehow pass by us. Hundreds of dead people in Syria, plane crash in Nigeria or army beating protesting people in Egypt. We are so used to hear them that somehow we have stopped realising what they mean.
We have stopped till the moment it happens in our “home.” As a journalist I have written many times
For young people like us religion or origin are not important
about terroristic bomb attacks. It has never been as close as Bourgas though. Actually Bourgas is just 400 kilometres from Sofia. It is a city on the Bulgarian “Riviera” and its airport is not even opened during the whole year. But today (18th of July) it was opened.
In the summer it is even crowded because of many tourists. A plane from Tel Aviv just landed and the people took the bus from the plane. BANG. And for at least six Jewish tourists this was the last day among us. For 30 more in the crowded bus this will be a nightmare till the end of their lives.
A terroristic attack happened here. Not over the Adriatic sea, not over the Ocean… but just by the Black sea. Just in Bulgaria.
Working for news is not an easy job. It might seem so but sometimes there are news that don’t let you sleep, don’t let you stay aside and forget them after crossing the front door. But when I was starting to do it I was shocked how news were chosen. Maybe sticking to main rules of the journalism we were covering news that are concerning many people (as the elections in the US) or are close geographically (European Union, your neighbours, etc.) but sometimes the death of 10 people in Doha or Nigeria were ‘minor news’ that “do not concern too many people.”
Maybe for most of you a bomb attack in an unknown city on the Black Sea coast would also be such a news. But for me it is more than shocking… Not only because it happened in MY country. But also because it happened to a flight with Jewish people from Tel Aviv. On all the Balkans Bulgaria is famous for its hospitality. Once foreign people come here they often find their way back much later. But we are not only friendly to foreigners but also tolerant to people we live with. In Bulgaria there is a big Turkish minority that even has their own party in the government. And Jewish people and people of Armenian origin are so accepted and positively assimilated that the only way to find out their origin is when they tell you.
So that is why an anti-Jewish terrorist attack in such a country makes the act even more scary and shocking… So let’s hear carefully the news next time and do not try to pass by reports about massacre in some parts of the world our geographic knowledge does not cover and do not underestimate it. Because no matter how scary it sounds – something like this can happen closer than we think even tomorrow.
Written by Liliya Buyukliyska, AEGEE-Sofia