Wednesday 24 January 2018

Scrumping with Kurds


Now that the Kurds have done most of the dirty work in getting rid of IS in Syria, Erdogan is repaying them by trying to kill the lot whilst they are all in one place in an already war-torn area just over the border. I heard today that three British citizens are joining the Kurds to fight against the Turkish forces.

We settled on one restaurant in Istanbul as a nightly regular. It was run by Kurds. The owner was born for comedy and had a face like Eli Wallach in 'The Good Bad and the Ugly'. You know how, when some people smile, it is with their mouth only and their eyes look almost terrified with worry? The restauranteur was always joking and laughing, even when he was complaining about Turks.

One night after we had finished our meal, he came over to me and whispered that I should come with him. I stood up and left H.I. at the table, then we crossed the road and went towards a derelict and ruined building on the other side.

We walked past the rusty locked gate and down the side of the metal fence. He stopped, looked around him furtively and suddenly darted into a small opening which I had not noticed before then. Once on the other side, he whispered to me to follow him in. I began to get a little nervous.

We walked through the overgrown courtyard until we arrived at a big old tree. He clambered up the tree very nimbly for a man of his build, and when he got to a certain height, there was much rustling and branch shaking by an unseen hand.

In a hoarse whisper he said, "Catch!", then it began raining large, ripe plums.

He had brought a large dishcloth with him and I began loading it with the forbidden fruit. I kept telling him that we had enough, but he kept throwing down more. We both felt like naughty schoolboys scrumping, but if he had got caught by a local policeman, he would probably have been shot on the spot.

We tied up the bundle and made our way back through the fence and over to his restaurant. Once there, he brought a dish for the plums and laid it onto the table.

"There. Free desert!"


5 comments:

  1. Erdogan is selling this to the people of Turkey as being in self-defence. It is no such thing.

    Your Kurdish scrumping man sounds nice. I found all Turks I met in Istanbul very kind but wouldn't have known if I met a Kurd. Maybe I did.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You most likely did. I spelt 'dessert' wrongly but cannot correct it until I get home.

      Delete
    2. Kimmie Taylor from Blackburn has been fighting with the Kurdish Women's Army for a year now. I follow her on Twitter and she has a lot of sense to say about what is currently happening.

      Delete
  2. A true gentleman. I hope the Plums were worth it.

    It is still a mystery to me why the EU should even consider Turkey as a member.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm not completely understanding the US trained Kurds fighting US trained Kurds. Tactically, that is. I understand this war is useless, expensive, killing good people. I hope your Kurd remains healthy and has more plums than he can use.

    ReplyDelete