Electric New Paper, Singapore
July 1 2006

So… S’poreans held for 11 days
By Ng Yao Min

July 01, 2006

THEY were held for 11 days at an Armenian checkpoint.

Mr Tan Shi Jie (left) and Mr Terence Teo on the couch they slept on
for 11 nights and (below), with a group of Iranian drivers who
invited them to share a meal.
The problem: Their Singapore passports.

All Mr Terence Teo, 25, and childhood friend, Tan Shi Jie, 25, wanted
was a memorable trip to mark their graduation from the National
University of Singapore (NUS).

Certainly, the trip was memorable – for the wrong reasons.

Their passports were thought to be counterfeits by the officials
guarding the Armenian border.

They were detained in the border complex at the Meghri checkpoint
from the night of 6 Jun to 16 Jun. They spent most nights sleeping on
a couch.

‘We were told that there were some problems with our passports and
that we would have to wait,’ Mr Teo said.

However, they were not told what the problems were.

The delay was followed by a thorough check and interrogation by the
border officials. This was to determine that they did not possess
multiple copies of passports.

Said Mr Teo: ‘They persistently asked us where we bought our
passports, even though I kept insisting that Singapore issued us the
passports.’

But the duo were not ill-treated.

‘They made us write statements saying that nothing was taken from us
except our passports and that we were not subjected to any abuse,
just to be careful,’ Mr Tan said.

To add to their dilemma, there is no Singapore Embassy in Armenia.

Mr Teo was allowed to call his elder brother, Mr Herman Teo, 26, in
Singapore on the night he was detained.

He, in turn, called the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) here after
receiving the call.

Said the elder Mr Teo: ‘I was even contemplating flying over to
accompany them if all else failed, but it was a foolish thought.’

With further assistance from the Singapore Embassy in Moscow and the
High Commissions in New Delhi and London, Mr Teo and Mr Tan finally
returned to Singapore on 18 Jun after spending 11 days in Armenia.

But not before going through some harrowing moments.

Mr Teo, an electrical engineering graduate, is an avid mountaineer.
He had initially planned to climb Mount Lobuche in Nepal.

When his friend pulled out of that trip, he roped in Mr Tan to go
backpacking through the Middle East.

Said Mr Teo: ‘I wanted a graduation trip with a difference.’

SMOOTH TRIP UNTIL…
The pair flew into Iran via Bahrain on 15 May.

They then travelled to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia on foot and by
bus. Everything went smoothly until they left Iran in the evening for
Armenia on 6 Jun.

It marked the start of their ordeal.

During their detention, they ate khachapuri (Georgian cheese bread)
and piroshki (Russian meat pies) almost every day.

They also had to be careful not to spend all their US dollars as
credit cards were not accepted there.

‘Sometimes, it got quite depressing but we tried means and ways, like
singing, to cheer each other up,’ Mr Teo said.

They took pictures with the people working at the border complex and
even made friends with them.

Because Iran is just across the border, Mr Teo and Mr Tan also saw a
group of Iranian drivers offloading cargo at Meghri checkpoint
regularly.

The drivers soon began recognising them at the complex and started to
communicate with them.

‘The people were very hospitable. We were even invited by some
Iranian drivers to join them for a sumptuous supper of stew on one
occasion,’ Mr Tan said.

‘We relied mainly on sign language and some writing as they
understood little English,’ Mr Teo said.

They also got occasional phone calls from worried family members and
officials from the MFA in Moscow.

Their personal belongings were not taken away. They had access to a
power point where they could recharge their handphones and talk to
their families.

They finally got their passports back on 15 Jun. But things did not
end there. They were not allowed into Iran, possibly because of the
same passport issue, and were told to go to Georgia, north of
Armenia.

Mr Teo then called Singapore officials in Moscow for advice.

‘MFA strongly advised us to leave for Yerevan, the capital of
Armenia, immediately,’ Mr Teo said.

On 16 Jun, they took a taxi to the Yerevan airport and spent the
night there.

The next morning, a Singapore official from Moscow flew to Armenia to
hand them air tickets to London.

In London, they were met by Singapore officials from the High
Commission before leaving for home.

Will he travel to the area again?

‘I’m actually thinking of going back to Georgia to climb. They have
beautiful mountains,’ Mr Teo said.

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