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TRUCKERS' STORY * Turkey - Long road to Asia: Essential route revived
Istanbul,Turkey -Today's Zaman, by DANIEL MCINTOSH -12 April 2009: -- ... Avni Teke, a Turkish truck driver who has been on the road for 42 years, jokes that “unfortunately there is no bridge over the nation of Turkmenistan.” Teke’s humor, ironically based in fact, explains that not even a fixed vehicle bridge linking Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan exists. Instead, despite this being the year 2009, there is a floating pontoon that traverses the Amu Darya River -- at the steep cost of $100 per crossing -- highlighting the long time the region has been isolated... In the cabin of his long-haul truck, Teke strikes a match and touches it to another cigarette as he reminds himself that he cannot quit smoking. “My cigarette is my only friend,” he explains, while recalling the solitude of driving along Iran’s highways and through magnificent flat plains in Turkmenistan, describing the raw and desolate Central Asia that he has watched grow from infancy during his career... Although he has been doing this for decades, Teke explains that he still feels excited when rolling out of İstanbul at dawn setting out on the route for Central Asia. He insists that no matter what changes the region sees in the future, “the sense of adventure in driving across Central Asia will always be there.”... Indeed he has seen it all in his 42 years touring the world on wheels, but it wasn’t chance that kept him safe and out of trouble on the road. “I don’t make friends with anybody,” he explains, highlighting the inherent independence the job requires... Despite having seen a significant portion of the world’s landscapes and mountain passes and met the local inhabitants, he insists, “There’s no place like Turkey; with land as beautiful as ours and people as warm as ours, I couldn’t find a better place.”... (Photo: Avni Teke, driving the world’s highways for 42 years, says he is luckily to have never experienced a major accident)Labels: truckers' story
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