OT: Freedom Flight

[Guest guest]

Hi Melissa,

 

Old one .. from 5 July .. but like I said earlier, I'm just now starting

to get the loads of e-mail that was saved for me in Maryland.

 

>This article appeared in our local paper, the Knoxville News Sentinel,

>yesterday. Apparently one of our airport employees is a Soviet refugee

>who swiped a jet fighter when he was in the Soviet Air Force back ion

>1987 and flew it at low altitude to Turkey, where he requested asylum in

>the USA.

>

>

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/news_columnists/article/0,1406,KNS_359_4820679,00.ht\

ml

>

>Butch, any commentary? I know you've been in Turkey a lot, but don't

>know if you were there when this happened.

 

I returned to Turkey for this trip in May 1988 .. Mihai Smighelschi made

his flight to freedom was in September 1987. But I knew about it. And

I knew a bit about conditions in Nicolae Ceausescu's Romania prior to

him meeting up with justice.

 

I traveled a week in Romania in January 1982 .. I had traveled in

Bulgaria and Yugoslavia prior to that .. and though there were varying

degrees of close surveillance (professional and otherwise) during those

trips .. none of it was as rude and antagonistic as that I received when

I crossed the dam on the Danube at Donji Milanovic (then Yugoslavia

but now Serbia) and crossed into Romania. In addition to Romania being a

classic " basket case " (which was not the situation in the other

countries) the officials were rude (and ignorant) and the people were

cowed .. afraid to speak with me.

 

I had a diplomatic passport and diplomatic license plates .. and the

government of Romania had been notified that I was coming .. so they

were prepared to harass me. The pissy guards there unrolled my

underwear and socks .. and even took the inside panels off the doors of

the car. They kept asking me questions in Romanian and Russian .. and I

kept telling them I spoke only English and Turkish .. which pissed them

off. The more I misunderstood them the more pissed they became .. and

the more I enjoyed it. ;-)

 

Finally, some woman (could have been a buff ugly man with breasts) ;-)

came out and said (in English) that I must purchase a certain amount of

Romanian currency for each day that my visa allowed me to stay in

Romania .. of course, the rate of exchange was FAR less than the

official rate .. and I received no receipt. Corruption was the norm

throughout that part of the world then .. still is to some degree. I

filed the routine report with the American Embassy and they made an

official protest .. which along with 50 cents will get you a cuppa

coffee in a cheap coffee house. ;-)

 

From the time I entered Romania until the time I left .. stooges were

on my tail .. some would have been great character actors for a Keystone

Cops film. ;-) But .. the people on the street in Bucharest were

afraid of me .. they would panic if I stopped them and asked directions

in English. I did not find this to be the case in Bulgaria or

Yugoslavia .. but a few years later, I did experience similar antics in

Moscow .. but not in St. Petersburg.

 

They could do nothing to me but harass .. anything beyond that .. to

include an " accident " would have caused quite an international stir.

 

I look back on those days of playing cat and mouse games and find them

amusing .. at least for me .. but not for the people in those countries.

 

I am of the opinion that during the later years of the USSR, folks in

Romania and Belarus suffered more than did those in the other Soviet

controlled countries .. and though it was not Soviet .. the folks in

Albania also suffered greatly under Enver Hoxha. Folks in Belarus are

still under the yoke .. Belarus is today the last and only " official "

dictatorship in Europe.

 

I appreciate the statement Smighelschi made .. though there are

some folks in the USA who can find fault with even such an admission.

 

> Smighelschi is happy with his new life in America. Perhaps more than

> any other East Tennessean, he understands and appreciates the precious

> liberties often taken for granted by natives. Not for a second does he

> regret his decision to defect.

 

Having seen life in Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Russia during

the reign of the USSR .. life in Somalia and some other African

countries .. and life in a number of Islamic Mid Eastern countries where

women are all but restricted to the home and men are punished for

missing prayers .. I know that life in the USA is FANFRIGGINTASTIC! It

can be better .. in some respects .. and it will most likely be. But it

can be worse .. in some respects .. and it most likely will be. We are

still going through growing pains .. but the experiment kicked off by

our Founding Fathers has worked far better than they hoped it would and

far better than other countries of that time believed it would.

 

I have met many folks who defected to Turkey from various countries, and

though the level of democracy here in Turkey is not necessarily what we

are used to in the USA .. its all relative .. those who come here feel

like they have arrived in Heaven.

 

Though not related to this .. I'll mention that Turkey has long been a

haven for the suffering. During World War II, when many of the Western

countries were still turning a blind eye to the plight of Jews in Nazi

Germany, some Turkish diplomats there were sticking their necks out by

issuing false Turkish passports to Jews .. and today, Turkey has a very

large Jewish population. One of out recent party leaders and Secretary

of State (Ismael Cem) is a Turkish Jew. Annually, Israel holds a large

celebration of thanks here in Turkey.

 

>Melissa Bell

 

Y'all have a good one .. and keep smiling. :-)

 

Butch http://www.AV-AT.com