From:  Bob Keith - Cool Dadio Media - Iraq / Turkey border, 10:30 a.m., Friday 27 October 2006.

 

  I have made it through the Iraq / Turkish border.  It was still the holiday when I traveled through so the border workers seemed short staffed.  There was only a couple taxis in the Zakho taxi garage waiting for any holiday travelers that might be trying to go somewhere while the city looked like a ghost town.  I at least found one that took me the five miles to the border for only four Dollars.  He must have been in the holiday spirit.  Supply trucks were lined up for five miles on both sides of the border waiting to get in each country while the one squad of machine gun toting soldiers on each side of the border inspected each truck for 15 minutes.   As an individual traveler I can walk past all the waiting trucks but I must ride across the bridge in a car. 

 

  The Kurdistan of Iraq pass port guy smiled, shook my hand with a death grip, and said I was welcome back anytime and directed me out the door to the taxi lot where I must find a car to cross the border.  The lot was empty.  A guy in a mini-van full of holiday travelers offered to take me across for 20 Dollars.  That is a good deal because it cost me 40 Dollars to get into Iraq traveling from the other way.

 

  There was one lonely 20-something-year-old Turkish soldier and his Sargent inspecting travelers' bags and cars.  I had heard they often put soldiers on the border who have lived overseas in various countries so they can maybe be language hip.  And sure enough, my guy had lived in Long Island for two years.  He spoke good slang English.  But when it came to his job, he clearly had to be Turkish.  He took a wall picture of Kurdistan I had purchased that was rolled up in a poster container.  He said, ''I am sorry man, but I can't allow anything Kurdish into Turkey.''  I said I did not know that, and he then said, ''no problem dude, just leave it here.'' He said this as he tossed it on the muddy ground.  I had only paid two Dollars for it. 

 

  And there I then realized was a small almost missable sign of the tight rope we Americans walk in that region.  The Kurdish guy had just wished me well and said to come back anytime.  The Turkish guy a few hundred feet away wanted to talk about the New York Giants.  They both like America and Americans.  But, their countries and regions frequently fight wars and civil wars against and with each other.  America supports both Turkey and Kurdistan of Iraq.  So as one American in a region where every one seems more than ready to kill each other, I walked the tight rope out of the grey area border (the Demilitarized Zone if you will) between them both.  All I lost for my trouble was a two Dollar poster.  In the end, I think it is best that I consider that a large victory.

 

End of Message.

 

Bob Keith - Cool Dadio Media