Donald Mackenzie: Missing in Turkey

DAY 8

I went to have a look at Donald's van today.  The place in the above pictures is where it's parked.  It's a privately run place where the police deposit any vehicles they hold.  It annoyed me when the interpreter told me that the guy who brought us to the van had said that I wasn't allowed to open the door. So I opened the door, climbed in and had a good rummage.  He didn't try to stop me.

I thought it was strange that the jacket Donald would normally wear on the mountain was still in the van.  But perhaps there's an innocent reason.

Apart from the jacket nothing else seemed unusual.

The way the place works is, when you pick up the vehicle you have to pay rent to the guy who owns the yard.  After two years it's going to be a lot.  And without a doubt when they see that I'm a Westerner it's going to be a whole lot more.  The law here must be pretty strange if it allows these people to keep hold of personal property which does not belong to them in the name of business.

Seeing the van and going through Donald's stuff was a really heavy experience.

I visited the office of the public prosecutor today and they had a fat file on Donald's case containing details of what they had done to locate Donald.  They wouldn't hand it over or let me look at it because they couldn't be sure that I was Donald's brother - my passport and driving licence wasn't good enough.  They told me that I am going to have to go through the British consulate.  They also told me that because Donald had climbed the mountain without a pass that he had illegally climbed it, therefore, they hadn't really bothered looking for him.  They also said that because he didn't have the pass that there was no record of him having climbed it and therefore as far as they were concerned he didn't exist.

I am finding here that when I am told something I tend to quickly hear the contrary.  A couple of men told me today very emphatically they believed that Donald was more than likely murdered by people who were 'mad' because he was giving out Bibles.  Then shortly afterwards another man told me not to take it seriously.

I know one thing: I don't yet know what happened to Donald.

As the Prosecutor said today: 'The case of Donald Mackenzie is still open.'

Just to add: a strange thing happened in the hotel tonight. Joannah Lumley walked through lobby and up the stairs.