One of our mentors, Grant Slater, tried to cross the border today from Northern Iraq to Turkey so he can film the second half of our project being conducted in Diyarbakir.
After a 3-hour trip to the border, Grant was denied entrance into Turkey. He had flown into Erbil from Jordan so there was no Turkish visa stamp in his passport. Apparently you can leave Turkey from the border but can't get back in unless you're making it a round trip.
This seemed pretty arbitrary to us, so Jon tried to call the Turkish embassy in Erbil to have them help us sort this out.
When he called the number on the embassy website, the receptionist was very friendly and listened to the whole situation. Then he said, "I'm sorry sir, we don't have a reservation for a Mr. Slater."
"What?" Jon didn't understand. "Who am I talking to?"
"This is the Erbil International Hotel, sir."
That's right, the Turkish embassy's official point of contact in the capital city of Northern Iraq is the impostor Sheraton hotel beloved by over-moneyed expats the region over.
Grant eventually crossed the border and got to Diyarbakir safe and sound, but we never found the number for the real Turkish Embassy. In short, #TurkishsolutionFAIL.
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