Not sure if I’ve posted the first photo on here before but the second one was certainly put on a couple of years ago. The reason I’m posting the photos is I need help identifying the drivers. I have been showing the photos on various Facebook sites but nobody recognises them. It was I think 82 and I we were on our way to Baghdad. The photos were taken down Gaziantep way in southern Turkey.
During this trip I had a problem at the border with my Iraqi visa. I related this story a couple of years ago but for the benefit of new members I will repeat it. In those days many of us got our Iraqi visas in Belgrade. We would park up at the National Hotel, get a taxi to the Iraqi embassy. Get our visa and continue on our way. Bit of a hassle and we could be stuck there for a couple of days. So the enterprising taxi driver came up with the idea of collecting all the drivers passports, taking them to the embassy, obtaining the visas and normally returning them to us by early afternoon then charging us in D-marks for his services. This was great for us as. We could have breakfast in the National, laze around till lunchtime and be ready for the off in the afternoon. Of course for some drivers lunchtime meant pivo time and the rest of the day would then be cancelled. Now this particular trip proved to be the last time I used the taxi driver to get my visa.
I met up with the two drivers in the photo in southern Turkey and we made our way to Habur where we spent half a day in the queue before clearing Turkey and crossing into Iraq. All three of us went to passport control where the first thing the Iraqi guy in charge said was, ‘from where did you get your visa’. I thought this a bit odd and waited for the other two lads to answer first. They both said London and by then realising I may have a problem I also said London. He took all three passports and laid them on his desk. He ramped up the first one then the second one and then looked at mine. His eyes lit up, he started jumping up and down and looked at me and shouted, ‘you lie, you lie, you got your visa from a taxi driver in Belgrade’ and with that he stamped cancelled right across my visa. The other two drivers, seeing this crazed demented Iraqi waving his rubber stamp in all directions did exactly what I would have done. They grabbed their passports and did a runner. After a few moments of deliberation I went back to my lorry and made a cup of tea.
An hour later, having wondered how I was going to get out of this predicament, I went back to the immigration office where the Iraqi official had by that time calmed down. After he had made me wait another fifteen minutes or so he called me forward where I apologised profusely. He then told me that my visa was a fake and that the taxi drivers brother worked in the embassy visa section. He had stolen the stamps and set up in business issuing Iraqi visas to the clients his brother found. Namely us drivers at the National. I humbly asked the Iraqi guy what I should do now as I had an urgent load to be delivered to Baghdad. He took a piece of paper, wrote on it in Arabic and then rubber stamped it and gave it to me together with my passport.
I took the paper out of the passport, looked at it then looked at him quizzically. ‘You can now go to Baghdad’ he said. ‘The piece of paper cancels the cancelled visa in your passport’.
