Sunday 31st, March 2019

We were in Diyarbakir, a capital city in a province south of Turkey. It is considered an important city of the Kurdish people. That day was the local election day throughout Turkey. It was expected the night would be full of celebration as the pro-Kurdish party will win the mayoralty of Diyarbakir. We happened to be living very close to the party's HQ, so our host said the place will be festive tonight.

3 pm

After the morning rain finished, we walked to old city to explore the city wall. Our host told us that some parts you can still walk on. It was almost 2 kilometers of continuous wall with the occasional towers at each bend. Not so many people have come out to explore the wall because the weather had been very wet.[caption width="800"]View of the old city from the wall[/caption]

6 pm

On our way home we saw an advertisement for milk for one Lira one litre. That's super cheap and there was a shop near our home. We decided to visit the shop later that night to get stuff for dinner.

7:22 pm

On our way home, we passed the celebration and took a few photos to capture the moment. We carried on to the supermarket with the milk discount.[caption width="800"]People are flowing in to celebrate[/caption]

7:35 pm

On our way back with bread and milk in our hands, Pheng stopped to take more photos. It was an extremely festive atmosphere - flags, music and fireworks. Matt was concerned about getting involved so he waited on the other side of the road. When Pheng tried to cross the road, he was stopped by a plainclothed policeman. He showed Pheng his ID and requested Pheng to stay. He is on his phone calling someone. Pheng tried to communicate through the translator asking why the hold up. He gave no information other than a "just stay" gesture.

Matt eventually got involved and became frustrated. The cop wanted us to get inside their white bus. It looked like we were getting detained. We refused and stayed outside asking what we did wrong. Again no answer. He asked for passports and Matt said it was at home. Actually Pheng had the passports strapped on the body the entire day – but Matt didn't know. So we suggested one of us go to get it, but he didn't allow it.

He asked if we were FBI or CIA agents and looked really serious. Pheng lifted the bag of breads and said we're only tourists buying food for dinner. He still wasn't convinced. Matt angrily said you can't force us into the bus (which was filled with policemen and guns), the cop responded angrily pointing us to go into the bus. We stood our ground and refused to move, telling him he can't make us do anything unless he provided a reason why he stopped us in the first place.

7:40 pm

The cop found another riot-geared policeman who spoke some English. We explained the situation and he asked "why didn't one of us go get the passports?". We looked straight into the eyes of the first cop. They had a little chat and eventually let Pheng go to get it. The second cop was much calmer and respectful to us. Luckily the home was very close so two minutes later Pheng returned with the passports.

While Pheng was away, Matt was talking to the second cop in a normal conversation of "where are you from, what is your job, etc". The first cop heard that Matt was from Christchurch and reacted in the most offensive way possible. He shouted "Allah Akbar" towards everyone and pretended to shoot everyone with his loaded gun. This was in reference to the mosque attack which was big news in the middle east. Extremely offended, Matt refused to talk to that cop for the rest of the night.

7:42 pm

Pheng handed the cops the passports and they flicked through the pages. They noted we've been to Iran and we insisted we were tour cycling across Asia. With an empty stomach, we asked if we could go home to make dinner. They seemed hesitant but had nothing else to keep holding us up. Eventually both the cops let us go. They said go home quickly and don't come back.

8 pm

We got home and watched the celebration continued late into the nights.