The Ban Bus

Muteber was our local contact person here and she was waiting at the hotel for us. She’s an ex journalist and has taken on the work of trying to get Turkey to ban landmines as well as cluster bombs. A great deal of excellent work has been done by her and her colleagues and Turkey acceded to the treaty simultaneously with Greece in 2004. This is where skilled negotiations are needed to take two countries whose issues are linked and get them to remove a weapons system in a way that neither feels vulnerable to the next. Neither did it first and neither last. I am sure this is what will be required for the cluster treaty, to get Greece and Turkey to the table at the same time.

The program for actions in Istanbul have been a bit of a mystery to me and Muteber explains what she has planned. Tomorrow will be largely a way of engaging the media. She has lined up a ‘Press Conference’ to be held in Taksim Square at midday tomorrow. This uses her old media contacts well and gets to the widest audience. A plan is hatched and all seems good. We wait at the hotel for her to call us at about twelve and drive up to the square, do a lap then drive into the middle of it. Davor brings up a small detail about police permission. “No, there is no permission” she says. A few eye brows are raised and visions of Midnight Express run through my mind. Turkey is not renowned for its gentle and tolerant police force. Recently a young guy was beaten to death in custody by the police for handing out some anti government pamphlets. That set a tense scene for actions between civil rights groups and the powers that be.

“If you ask for permission from the police to protest you will be told no. If you hold a ‘press conference’ then you can do that anywhere with no permission. We will do a press conference,” says Muteber. It felt a little like playing chicken with the police but you must always bow to local wisdom so that plan was locked in and we ate possibly our last supper before prison food was to be the norm. I was working my alibi out already. Kidnapped by a mad Norwegian with her Canadian/Serbian henchman and forced from country to country looking for the best price. As I am fat and lazy they were having trouble cutting a good deal so the odyssey continued.

If we ended up in jail I needed protection. I wasn’t going to be anyone’s bitch. I’d gag Daniel and sell him for protection as someone called Bubba then break out in the dead of night. With a plan securely hatched I was feeling better already. Bring on tomorrow’s action.

The morning was grey and dull and threatened rain. That’s the easiest way to keep the media away. We needed to do some work on the Ban Bus as we remove all of our magnetic signage each time we cross a border. It had to go from stealth van back to Ban Bus. The signage had been flattened overnight and was reluctant to stick flatly to the van. Just when it was looking ok a sign would begin to peel then drop to the ground. We rolled them the other way and tried to crease edges back to the car till finally it was once again the Ban Bus. The phone rang and Muteber said come so we loaded and drove off.

The drive was only a few hundred metres and we re-entered the square and all the traffic chaos from last night was still here. Taksim Square is one of the busiest places in Istanbul and people were everywhere. As we drove along the side I spotted one TV camera then two then more. The lenses swung our way as Davor mounted the pavement and drove into the square. Muteber had delivered and had turned out a full media pack. We drove into the middle of them and jumped out with a selection of large photographs from cluster strikes around the world. The media pressed in and Muteber began the brief in Turkish. This gave me a chance to see who was there. In TV crews we had at least 7 then at least the same again in radio then print journalists and photographers as well. More than 20 media professionals were here for a word on cluster bombs and the Ban Bus.

The real coup was getting some of the big hitters like CNN, CNBC, PRESS TV, DHA and NTV. All did in depth interviews and took the B roll field footage that Daniel had put together. Mette was dashing here and there getting the presence stronger with more pictures out and photographing the scene. Our ‘Press Conference’ had been a great success.

Behind the cameras was a cordon of police. There were cops with automatic weapons, attack dogs that snarled and strained on their leashes and the odd spook in the very bad suit with a radio who mingled with the crowd. All good but I was wondering what it would take to get a reaction from them. The media began to leave after an event that lasted over 40 minutes. Short, sweet and of major impact is the perfect event. We packed up as quickly as we had arrived and were soon back in the hotel.

The next problem was our lack of any sanity coming from the GPS. As we had got into Istanbul on a wing and a prayer we did not want to go out the same way. We wanted to find the Garmin dealer and get the disk with the Turkey maps on them. The taxi dropped us outside the dealer and the chaos was only starting.

“No, you have bought it online so use your code and get it there.”
“The code doesn’t work and will not download.”
“Yes, download, you must use the code.”
“No, code doesn’t work, give us the bloody disk.”
“Code, you must have code.”
“We have the code, it doesn’t work.”
“Give me code.”
We might now be getting somewhere. Mette went online and found the code and the dealer could then run it through his machine, open the file, download the program and make us a disk. All’s well and we walked outside. After a few paces Mette said, “I wonder if it will work?”

There were a few hours left so we headed for the ancient mosque of Sultanahmet or what was the original basilica of Saint Sofia. Saint Sofia was built in 500AD by the Emperor Justinian and it amazes me that such a structure could be constructed 1500 years ago. Mette had brought the ‘Ban Cluster Bombs Now’ banner and wanted a photo of it in front of somewhere very Istanbulish and this was to be the spot. We rolled it out in the street and the shot was made amongst quizzical looks from passers-by. Another country ticked off the list.

There was just time for a quick look at the Cistern, an incredible underground water storage system built at the same time as Saint Sofia, then into a restaurant for a meal as the sun set amongst minarets and domes. Istanbul had gone very well and it was onto Bulgaria tomorrow.

Muteber wanted to see us before we left and we met before lunch and went for a walk through town. It was one of the first moments of actually winding down. She pointed out some beautiful pieces of history then it was time for Turkey to end and the road north to begin.