Tall
Tales from Beyond the Tien Shan"
By
Tom Wheeler, Ankara, Turkey
Meintjeskop Ditaba 1/2000
In the last issue of 1999 we had an article
"More dispatches from the Silk Road", with the promise
to publish the follow-up story in the next
edition, so here it is:
The 29th October is Republic Day in Turkey
and as no festivities were planned in the aftermath of the earthquake, it
seemed an ideal time for a long weekend away. But no. The Tajikistan Embassy
sent a Note saying that President Emomali Rahmonov would receive my credentials
in Dushanbe at 9 a.m. on that day.
Rather easier said than done. How does one
get from Ankara to Dushanbe?
Via Sherametova and Domodedova airports in
Moscow - a major problem to get between the two
airports and a vast detour, north then
south, as we discovered earlier; or from the as until then unheard of airport
at Chorlu outside Istanbul direct to Dushanbe on Tajikistan Airlines- seemed just too simple.
We would probably have to share the plane
with vast piles of textiles and other goods masquerading as carry-on luggage -
the famous suitcase trade; or the last option: five hours by Turkish Airlines
to Tashkent, three hours by car with the redoubtable and ever trustworthy
Michael Iirncke at the wheel, to Khojand in northem Tajikistan. Then over the
4000m TIen Shan ranges by a domestic Tajikistan Airlines craft. The more
familiar won out in the end.
The bureaucracy at the border faded away in
the face of careful preparation and a few well-placed snarls from Michael.
But our hearts did sink when we saw the
size of the tiny Yak 40 jet that was going to take us on the last leg south to
Dushanbe. After some zigzagging and circling to gain enough height in the
valley at Chkalovsk, a former closed nuclear city, now a gold refinery and site
of the airport, we crossed the formidable double range cut in two by the
Zerefshan river, without even any turbulence, in 50 minutes.
The once civil war-wracked city of Dushanbe
seemed serene, well-planned and beautiful as we drove down the main boulevard,
no longer named Leninski Prospect, but after the national poet, RudakL to the
Presidential Dacha. This is in the grounds of the Presidential Residence and we
were invited to wander in the gardens and enjoy the superb forest of pines and
other trees planted many years ago. Pretty relaxed for a country still in the
midst of a peace process.
Our preconceptions were given a further
knock by the efficiency with which our programme was arranged: Meetings with
the Foreign Minister, Prime Minister and Speaker of Parliament and calls on
the Indian and Turkish Ambassadors. The
latter invited us to lunch at a restaurant in the Opera House where we were
served trout caught that morning in the local river - there is no fish market.
What
is it with Tom Wheeler and the Central Asian girls ........ ?
His
colleagues are Nowetu Luti (second from the right) and Michael Timcke (right).
The former invited me to celebrate my
birthday in the international dining club he has created in an unused building
in the Chancery grounds. Other dinner guests included two of the local South
African resident - goldmine personnel. We missed the last of the South African
wine by a week, so we drank Chilean white and French Bordeaux. We were frozen
in our seats when 'Nkosi Sikelela iAfrika' came over the sound system. Our host
had decided to entertain us and the other diners with his collection of Soweto
String Quartet CDs. (He served in Kinshasa and is a devotee of all forms of
African music.)
After the simple but dignified ceremonies
on Friday at the Presidential Palace, the Turkish Ambassador invited me to join
him at his national day lunch for the local heads of mission. Met them all in
one swoop, while Nowetu Luti and Michael lunched with the South African
community in a fancy new Austrian restaurant across Rudaki from the Dacha.
In next to no time we all had official
accreditation cards. Michael has also acquired a new title "Official
Adviser to the South African Ambassador to Tajikistan" and has an Identity
card to prove it.
Suddenly the airline tickets got cheaper
too. Our arrival at the VIP departure lounge was not without incident. The
clerk with a Soviet-style attitude said that I could stay, but Nowetu and
Michael would have to go elsewhere to check in. Michael gave her to understand
she could get lost in Uzbek or Tajik or Russian or something. It worked.
Then she mellowed and asked the Chief of
Protocol how the South African Ambassador could be white. Soon I was Papa
Afrika, Nowetu Mama Afrika and Michael Big Brother from big brother next door -
Uzbekistan - and big he is compared to a Tajik, even if his beard makes him
look like an Islamic fundamentalist.
The journey in a prop-driven Antanov 24 was uneventful
if hair- raising, as the mountain crossing was in daylight this time. We could
see what we had skimmed across in the dead of night.
Lost in the mountains of Tajikistan are Somi
Nkonyeni, Torn Wheeler, Nowelu Luti and
Felicity Timcke, wife of Tashkent Honorary
Consul Michael Timcke.
The charming young protocol officer in
Khojand, Mr Sharipov, had arranged a high-speed chase back to the Uzbek border
under police escort. With his help we had the fastest border crossing in living
memory, even though the two states are practically at war with each other. The
whole feel was like a movie scene of a border crossing out in the back of
beyond, except it was real, out in the back of beyond.
An hour and half later, in spite of farm
tractors and heavy trucks without lights we were safely back in Tashkent, only
to avoid by a hair breadth being wiped out in a high-speed collision at the
intersection of two major city boulevards.
Somehow the exotic idea of a journey to
Tajikistan, just short of Shangrila, has disappeared. Been-there-done-that. Next time we will go straight
from Chorlu, and take a chance on the baggage.
MEDIA
STATEMENT ON FIRST SA AMBASSADOR TO PRESENT CREDENTIALS IN TAJIKISTAN
The first South African Ambassador to be accredited
to the Central Asian Republic of Tajikistan has presented his credentials to
President Emomali Rahmonov in the capital, Dushanbe.
The Ambassador to Turkey based in Ankara,
Mr Tom Wheeler. is now also South Africa's non-resident Ambassador to the Republic of Tajikistan..
Tajikistan. which borders China.
Afghanistan. Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. is a country with mountains exceeded in
height only by the Himalayas of Nepal and covering 93% of the country.
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