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A good little traveller I had turned off my Turkish phone on boarding the plane to the UK. I realised my mistake immediately even though I had made it many months before when I chucked the password in the bin without memorising it.
The consequences of this wouldn’t be felt until we were back in Turkey. Until then my British phone could be used in its natural habitat in the UK, with a MobiNil sim in Egypt and for texts only elsewhere.
But, really, who cares? I hear you say. And why have you taken a photo of the Turkcell branch in Diyarbakir that put your phone back into service?
Getting a photogenic memory of the people that enabled me to take a call for the first time in months without worrying about exorbitant roaming charges wasn’t why I took this picture. I was trying to capture the proud and defiant Kurdish people of Diyarbakir going about their business under the heavy police presence from Ankara. Or maybe I was after the normality of life in the city at the centre of Kurdish opposition to the discrimination of central government.
But, let’s be honest, this picture doesn’t convey this at all. It is just a shot of the Turkcell shop that fixed my phone.
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This piece was first published in an older version of our blog which included the following comments:
Goody said: “It’s a great shot if we take into account its meaning that is how brave the woman is to pass by the police. Thanks”
– we replied: “People in Diyarbakir are used to a strong police presence and seem to take it for granted. There were more police on the streets than usual on this day – including armoured vehicles and riot police – as there was a political rally or march due. We didn’t witness any trouble and everyone, from residents to the police, seemed otherwise quite relaxed.”
Yanu said “And you go to Turkey to support the “oppressed” kurdish terrorists ? Forgot about the beach !? Last month, I didn’t go to the UK to support the oppressed welsh people… Nor to sympatize with the Irish opposition.”
