People who know me or have read my writings will already know that when my life is in the doldrums, when it’s too quiet or needs livening up I am wont to attempt some Official Administrative jobs, like getting a residence permit or somesuch. Anything, in fact, that means I come into close contact with the Turkish version of a Jobsworth. About three weeks ago I tried livening up my life by paying the annual Building and Real Estate Tax on my property. I was surprised with the deviousness because as I stood at the chest high counter trying vainly to see the computer screen I was told that I had two properties in my name. Well all that had happened is that the one I had sold two years ago had been put onto the name of the buyer but had not been taken off my name. How could it be that I did not have the problem when I paid the tax last year? You may well ask, I didn’t bother. Well that got sorted out pretty easily so I had to find another, less easily sorted game. I was surprised how the opportunity just fell into my lap. My car had to go through its annual roadworthiness test a month ago and I had been surprised when it failed because the registration documents said it was in vehicle class M2 (should be N1) on one card and the colour was shown as Gri-Beyaz (grey-white) on both cards when it is actually completely white. The generally accepted wisdom at the time was forget about it for now, get the registration certificates changed a couple of days before the period of grace ran out and then present it for a retest, they’ll only check the documents and as it’s a retest you’ll be seen first so you won’t have to waste all day waiting. Sage nods all round and that’s what I did.
So, a couple of days before the retest I went to the Traffic Police office in Kaş to get the documents changed. It wasn’t possible because both registration cards had to be changed. You’ll have to get the form EK1 stamped by the vehicle testing people then bring it back here and we’ll change the cards. Seven kilometres up the hill in Ağullu, a village near my village, I presented the form EK1 and asked for the stamp. We don’t do that now, it changed in January but we’ll print out the correct instructions and you can take them back to the Taffic Police office in Kaş and they will print new ones for you, then you bring them back here and we’ll do the rest. Seven km back down in Kaş I decided it would be a good idea to involve a fluent English speaker’s assistance so I called Yılmaz and we went into the Traffic Police office. To have both cards changed was quite a serious thing and the fact that the car had not been painted was causing consternation so communication with head office in Antalya was required, an email was sent. We went for tea. A reply had been received when we returned and research was then carried out to find what colour the car had originally been registered as.
Grey.
It is obvious to anyone actually looking at the car that the original colour was white, all the normally hidden areas are white, there isn’t a trace of grey anywhere. More communication with head office, Yilmaz and I went for lunch.
An hour or so later a reply had been received. It was originally registered as grey and if it was now white that means that someone had painted it but not officially changed the colour on the documents so an offense might have been committed and a fine might be in order. Yilmaz then entered into deep conversation with the very helpful lady in the police office and I listened with increasing disbelief. My options were twofold, to get a (faked) receipt from a painter for having painted it white so that I could officially have two new cards or to paint a bit of it grey myself and just have one new card showing the correct vehicle class.
That is why my car now has a small panel and stripe in a metallic grey and everything conforms with the registration cards….for now.
Cukurbagli's Blog 
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