Travel Journal

2002-11-03

Can you imagine this in the US?

I'm not sure how they're preventing double-voting. I think they're marking people's passports or identity documents (they look like passports from here, but could be something else); before they let someone vote, they look through every page. I wonder if they're using the same document at every polling place? They're also looking at people's boarding passes, taking down information from the passports, and I think the voter signs something.

Anyway, the ballot is a long strip of paper containing a section for each party, in which the party logo appears with some text. Each voter is given a ballot, an envelope, and a stamp, and goes behind a plywood screen to vote. From some of the campaign posters I've seen, it seems clear that the stamp says "evet", the turkish word for yes, and that the voting method is to place a stamp below the logo of the party you want to vote for. This also helps explain why the party logos are on every scrap of advertising!

When they emerge from the screen, the voter has obviously folded up the ballot to fit it in the envelope, which they then drop into a wooden ballot box.

I guess this is part of the reason the voter turnout numbers in Turkey are so high!"

Istanbul Airport

Leaving Izmir

We got up way too early this morning to catch the 4:45 airport shuttle; there was only one other passenger on the bus. At this hour there was no traffic, so the trip only took about 20 minutes. It took us a few minutes to figure out where the check-in counter was for Turkish Airlines, but once we got there, the friendly woman working there asked us if we would rather take the earlier flight to Istanbul. She explained that the Istanbul airport had much better shops and facilities, so she thought we'd enjoy spending time waiting there more. We agreed, which is how we wound up boarding the plane at 6am.

The Izmir airport has some interesting procedures. First off, there's an armed guard at the entrance from the highway, and all vehicles must drive through the gates under the eye of the guard. Kitty says that she used to take the regular city bus to the airport, which drops you off on the highway. The guards won't let you through on foot, so you have to hitch a ride with someone just to get through the entrance!

Once we got to the international departures terminal, we were surprised that we had to go through security just to get into the building. The check-in gates are located to either side of the terminal, across from passport control, and are basically invisible from the entrance. There are a number of souvenir shops selling inexpensive souvenirs and snacks; I bought a Coca Cola Light. :-)

After checking in, we went through passport control, which was considerably more serious than it has been in my experience leaving western european countries. He carefully inspected our passports and boarding passes, and then stamped our visas and boarding passes (both the ones for Istanbul and the ones for Athens) with an exit stamp.

Next stop: security again, and then we were in a waiting area for international departures. One of the interesting things about our flight is that it actually has both international and domestic passengers on it, but the domestic passengers checked in at a different gate and took a separate bus to the airplane.

Boarding began promptly at 5:55, and we were all bussed over to the plane, where we had to identify our bags before they would be placed on the airplane, as an added security measure."