The Gurbulak border is famous for being the one to avoid. So your fixer is correct in saying this. There have also been some troubles I believe in Turkey around this border area, though I am not sure of specifics.
Going through Armenia is a rather long diversion however, and for a car at least, it is quite expensive to enter and cross Armenia. It is however a great country to visit (as is Georgia).
There are two other Turkey-Iran borders which you could use however, and from all accounts they are much calmer and easier though I have not crossed either of these.
You could also get a visa for Azerbaijan and cross from SE of Igdir (passing the most easterly point of Turkey) into Nakhchivan, then cross into Iran at Jolfa. However, the Jolfa border was the worst in terms of chaos (of many) Iranian borders that I have crossed over the years.
The Iran - Armenia border is calm and easy to cross.
A final option would be to go into Iraq at Silopi, then into Iran at Piranshahr or Beshmaq. However, in my experience, the Iraqi borders are also a little chaotic and you need to pay a little to take vehicle in.
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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.
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