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We are in a conflicted and unstable area where Kurdish separatists hidden in the mountains threat Turkish unity. As a consequence, this is the most militarized area we have crossed so far (worse than Kashmir, Pakistan or Xinjiang) and we come across checkpoints every 30km.
Crossing the border to Turkey was easy and, once on the other, free side, we safely mocked Iranian soldiers taking photos of the border post military installations. (If you can read Korean, check out Charlie’s website at //www.7lee.com and you will see how Charlie went to the police station twice for taking photos; once staying there for 4 hours while the Tehran militia checked all his photos trying to decide if a Taekwondo master sleeping in a tent was a national threat and wondering who were those two suspicious bearded ugly riders showing on some of the shots).
With this advance we were not in a hurry anymore and we spent two nights in the awesome fish farm of Reza's cousin, savoring as much excellent fish as we could digest and joking around. This was an unexpected and unforgettable last touch to our stay in Iran!
Yasser is a devote Muslim, one who makes efforts to understand and perfect his faith, and at the same time he is extremely open minded and interested in other people's beliefs, cultures and lifestyles.
With all this delay we were to arrive one day late and miss Charlie's birthday in Tabriz! Sorry Charlie! Fortunately when we called him to sing a happy birthday song on the phone, Hassan (the cousin of our friend Meysam from Tehran) who was then in Tabriz with Charlie, heard it, understood it was his birthday, and took him home for a happy celebration!
As we enjoyed our time with Yasser, Rafika and their friends we let time slip by: it was too late to ride to Astara and we even missed the bus to Tabriz. We finally caught a bus for Ardebil where we had to wait one night for another bus to Tabriz the next morning at 5am. To be sure of waking up for the bus we slept smack in front of the door of the bus station and people had to step over Karim to get in!
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|---|---|---|
| نسرین ستوده: زندانی روز | Dec 04 | |
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| احسان نراقی: جامعه شناس و نویسنده ۱۳۰۵-۱۳۹۱ | Dec 02 | |
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| Nasrin Sotoudeh: Graffiti | In Barcelona | Nov 30 |
| گوهر عشقی: مادر ستار بهشتی | Nov 30 | |
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| محمد کلالی: یکی از حمله کنندگان به سفارت ایران در برلین | Nov 29 | |
| Habibollah Golparipour: Prisoner of the day | Kurdish Activist on Death Row | Nov 28 |