Anderson Economic group travels to has had a office in Turkey for over a year. They work to bring together institutions from both Turkey and the United States.
Because of this, Patrick Anderson, CEO, was selected to be part of a delegation to go to Turkey’s capital, Ankara.
However, shortly after Anderson left the capital, tragedy hit Ankara.
“I frequently went up and down one of the main streets in Ankara. Which is a street which goes in between a lot of the government buildings….There was a car bomb that was detonated right on main street,” Anderson said.
A car bomb detonated on a main street by many government buildings, killing 37 people and injuring over a 100. The Kurdish Workers Party claimed responsibility for the attack.
Anderson says Turkey is beautiful, but “they’re definitely a country under a tremendous amount of stress.”
Turkey has been facing close to 300 million refugees and migrants from the Middle East and this attack is just one of many they country have suffered.
“They had a suicide bomber is Istanbul back in December and there was a car bombing on a military convo just a month before,” Anderson said.
Turkey may have some experience in facing terrorist, but so does Anderson.
According to Anderson, he barely escaped with his life when he was in the twin towers on September 11, 2001.
After a short pause, Anderson recalled “I was in the world trade center when the first plane hit.”
Anderson says that surviving these attacks do put a burden on you.
The organization puts on a 5k run every year around 9/11, the run helps fund a essay contest with scholarships for the winners.
And he says one of the main goals was “lets remember every Michigan victim, let’s make sure there is some kind of physical memorial in Michigan.”
And last year Anderson spoke in Wentworth in Lansing park at the 9/11 memorial.