Diary , 26th of July 2009 - Arrival in Trabzon

This morning we awoke stiff limbed, sweaty and not at all rested at a service station, somewhere between Samsun, and Trabzon, where we believed the Utopian Banking Society conspirators were hiding out with the World Economy. At this time we were unsure what the UBS conspirators were planning to do in Trabzon. They were surely not intending to stay there too long - then, as now, we were convinced that their ultimate destination was the sparsely populated steppes of Mongolia.

But where to from Trabzon? Borders with Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq and Syria all stood within a days drive of Trabzon, but few of these directions made any sense. Syria and Iraq were obviously out, with neither country being vaguely in the direction of Mongolia, or offering good prospects for the creation of a Utopian Banking Society within their borders.

Armenia's border with Turkey has been closed since 1993, and Armenia's war with Turkey's ally, Azerbaijan, over the disputed territory of Nagorno/Karabakh. Crossing the closed border from Turkey into Armenia would be exceptionally dangerous, and would achieve little, with Azerbaijan, Iran and Georgia bordering and no clear route onward to Mongolia.

Crossing into Georgia could at least be safely achieved from Turkey, but the journey onwards to Mongolia would still not be easy. The border between Georgia and Russia is also closed due to conflict over the ethnically Russian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, wholly within Georgia's borders but having achieved varying levels of de-facto independence since the early 1990's. The UBS conspirators would be able to cross from Georgia into Azerbaijan instead, but where to from there?

Iran had seemed to us to be the most logical next step in the UBS conspirators journey to Mongolia. From Iran, the kidnappers would be able to continue overland to Turkmenistan, then Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and from there they would only be a short distance through Russia from the northwestern border of Mongolia. Of all of the immediately obvious options, this seemed to be the most likely to us.

As we clambered out of the Micra and slowly made our way toward the service station cafe for some breakfast, our sleep deprived brains struggled to make sense of the situation. After finding the prospect of more kebab meat and spicy vegetables too much in the already stifling heat, we returned to the car to make plans for our arrival in Trabzon. With no information on the UBS kidnappers' next destination, we needed to be prepared.

TO BE CONTINUED...