The Iranian-Armenian Border Story

As is obvious from the previous post, we made it into Armenia, the 7th country on our trip, another ex-Soviet state but with a very (Eastern-) European feel to it.

Crossing the border was again quite an interesting experience. The drive along the Araks river, the physical border between Iran and both Armenia and Azerbaijan, was very fascinating, with snow-capped peaks and lofty Autumn colours. The border area was quite heavily guarded, with sentry posts and patrolling soldiers on both sides.

At the Iranian side, the customs and passport control were slow but straightforward and without any hassle. A short walk over a bridge brought us at the Armenian side, but the first flag we saw was a Russian one! The border is actually patrolled by Russian troops, and they also handle the visa issuing process and passport control.

Getting a visa was easy, but with 50USD that piece of paper wasn't particularly cheap.
After the visa had been issued however, a border guard took a closer look at the passports, and obviously discovered that Floris's passport was broken (see earlier post). Until then, nobody had noticed or nobody had cared, but these Russian officers were of another calibre. A few phone calls were made, a bit of discussion went on between some officers, and we ended up waiting in that border post for over 1.5 hours...
Finally, we were allowed through, surely because of lack of options: we didn't have a re-entry visa for Iran and they had already issued a visa. We got away quite luckily, it seems.

Floris got quite upset about this matter, because we had gone to the Belgian embassy in Tehran to inquire again what to do with this passport. We had already gone in Bishkek, but having a more updated confirmation of the validity of the passport wouldn't hurt, we thought. In the embassy they basically just told us that this ripped page posed no problem and that the passport was as valid as ever. They didn't put that in writing however, and they were moreover obviously wrong, as we did get a delay (and a possible denial for entry) on the Armenian border. As a result, a polite but firm email has already been sent to the embassy to point out their mistake and Floris's discontent about that.

Another striking fact was the dress of the female Russian border guards. Coming from Iran, where chadors, headscarves and none-revealing clothes are the norm, the outfit of the female officers was quite a shock (not an unpleasant one, however). Bleached hair, lots of make-up, knee-high high-heeled black leather boots, short skirts and a just-too-tight blouse,... Completely over the top, in other words and we wonder if they do that on purpose to provoke the Iranians who cross the border here...