Turkey - The Wild East

Eighty percent of the time you will be perfectly safe traveling in Turkey, but it's the 20 percent that will kill you-with only the Turkish traffic and driving standards to worry about. The PKK has announced a cease-fire and a "withdrawal" of all its forces from Turkey. How long this will last is another matter. It is reckoned that maybe only 700 PKK guerrillas (the commanders) will be leaving Turkey for a mega PKK congress in the Qandil mountains on the Iran-Iraq border. The rest of the kids will stay put. So hiking is still off the menu in southeastern Turkey. The Turkish military don't really care and have continued operations against the PKK all over the southeast.

Travel in Tunceli province might be particularly hazardous. TIKKO have continued fighting, occasionally zapping civilians for fun. Other provinces to steer clear of are Van, Hakkari and Sirnak. Over the past 15 years, several thousand Turkish civilians and security personnel have been killed in guerrilla attacks.

In the early '90s, the PKK began kidnapping foreigners in eastern Turkey to generate media attention for their separatist cause. Over the years, a number of foreigners, including Americans, have been held by the PKK and eventually released. On October 9, 1993, an American tourist was abducted by the PKK while traveling by bus on the main highway between Erzurum and Erzincan, in Tunceli province. Due to the tense security situation, the climbing of Mt. Ararat near the border with Iran continues to be extremely dangerous, even with the required Turkish government permits. If you're an American citizen give the embassy a call. But DP can tell you they will simply say "don't bother" if you're planning a trip to the southeast. So, now you don't need to give them a call, do you?

U.S embassy in Ankara is: [90] (312) 468-6110, or the American consulate in Adana, [90] (322) 454-3774

http://www.usis-ankara.org.tr/