Reminiscence from Anatolia- Part Thirty Four: The city of Snow

Igdir is a small town… with a Kurdish majority… I had seen the center of gravity of the Kurdish fault-line in Diyarbakir… but never with the intensity with which I saw it in a smallish Igdir…

When I landed in Igdir… I saw a commotion… it was then I realized that a riot between the Kurds and police has broken out… the commotion grew and grew… till tear gas shells were lobbed at the crowd… and I, who was sandwiched between the two… had the taste of what tear gas was like… a severe stinging feeling the eyes… and then everything goes blind… luckily I got away that feeling in just one of the eyes… and had covered my other eye… I was helped by a local to get away from the scene… to a bus company office, wherein I purchased a 2 pm bus ticket to Kars…

Waiting for the bus to start… I looked at the road… the commotion continued… the police vans came rounded up a few local youth… and took them away… the police onslaught appeared to be brutal… the fault-line, I realized, runs much deeper than I thought it did.

Igdir, I realized, while sitting on the bus… is also home to a Turkish genocide memorial… before the Armenian genocide, it was home to a Armenian majority… who was butchered during the Armenian genocide… but the Turks deny the Armenian genocide… and insist that the Armenian-Turk riots broke out because the Armenians conducted a Turkish Genocide…

It is strange that the Armenian genocide was conducted largely by the Kurds, who took away the Armenian homes and started living over here… and today the same Kurds are facing the problem. I heard a old Kurds yelling… something… “They did it to Armenians and now they are coming to eliminate us”… this is what I could understand… in the maze of history the real story gets lost… who was the perpetrator… who was the victim.

I saw the Turkish genocide memorial at the horizon… while moving away from the town… this was going to be my last brush with the fault-line… and I was off to Kars… my final destination.

The bus follows a very picturesque route… with snow all around… the military check posts are all over… however… this time these military check posts mean serious business… we were driving along the Turkey-Armenia border… often dubbed as one of the most dangerous borders in the world.

Earlier, Armenia was a part of USSR… and Turkey the part of NATO… and therefore, even then, the border was heavily militarized. Today, when Armenia is free… it remains heavily militarized because of the mutual hatred and distrust… due to the baggage of Armenian genocide.

Igdir is at a strategic junction… close to borders with Armenia, Iran and Naxcivan Enclave of Azerbaijan… but it has no road to Iran… Armenian border is closed… and only a road to Azerbaijan… and therefore, what could have been a booming town… is sleepy backwater.

I reached Kars at around 5 pm… it was already dusk… I had to find a hotel to stay as it was getting cold… I chose a hotel called Kent (though pronounced as Chent by locals)… I went in there… negotiated a room for two nights… as I had to take a flight to Istanbul after two days from Kars… after a hard bargaining he gave me a room for two nights at 30 Liras.

The old man at the counter however was very helpful… he called up Jaleel and told him that I wanted to meet him. Jaleel promised me that he’d come in the evening… he said that if I go alone… I need to shell out 100 Lira… but if there are others to join me… the price will go down to 60 Liras per person. He said he’d find out if others are going to Ani as well.

I went out for a walk… Kars was at one point of time… a part of Soviet empire and therefore many of its building are Soviet styled… I checked at one of the place… the temperature was -3 degrees… it was very cold… Kars is often said to be the coldest place in Turkey… I had a problem walking on the sleet… it was very slippery.

I went to a restaurant… had some food… walked around… Kars is famous for its tasty honey… 3 Lira a kilogram… dirt cheap and very tasty… however; it was a problem to take it back… so I refrained from buying it.

In the night, I met Jaleel… Jaleel is a very famous person… his name is mentioned in the Lonely Planet… he said that right now it is a lean period… but I was lucky to have found companions for Ani trip a Canadian couple… couch-sharing in Kars… they’d give 100 Lira and I another 60 Lira… for the trip.

The plan for Ani was finalized… I could have had a good night sleep.

Last few days have been very hectic… but now the end of the trail was near… there was a sense of nostalgia… I wanted to go back… to Kandahar… which has been my home for quite some time… home is where the heart is…

That night… I could here winds roaring… I looked out of the window of my cosy room… there was a heavy snowfall… As Jaleel told me… that Kars is the coldest place along with Erzurum, near by… another good sight to visit.

I woke up the morning next… Jaleel was to come at 7 am… so I had some time to walk… and purchase water and fruits for Ani visit… there was snow all around… and only one shop was open… an old gentleman was brooming the alley outside the shop… he smiled at me… and said Banjladesh (sic!)…

I smiled back… Hindistan… he got confused… what is Hindistan… and repeated Banjladesh… I said yeah Banjladesh.

He invited me inside his shop.