Ciudad Juárez.- 17,719 kilometers from Istanbul, Ömer Batubon Kep shares the traditional dishes of his country and his grandmother’s sauce recipe with the border people, in the city where he decided to settle and start his own business. “Here people treat me well, I have no problems; I’m hardly going out, but fine. The climate, yes it is very hot and when it is cold, very cold. It is different, but I do like it,” shared the 28-year-old Turk, who remains in Ciudad Juárez with a temporary resident card issued by the National Migration Institute (INM). After studying radio and television, six years ago he crossed the Atlantic Ocean to work as a technician and operator on the program ‘La Voz’ on TV Azteca, in Mexico City, where he fell in love and three years ago he decided to travel with his then bride to Ciudad Juárez. Not finding a job here in the forum lighting area, he began working in the kitchen at Fiesta Park, then at Carnitas Michoacán, then in a healthy food business and then in two businesses at the same time, until his ex-father-in-law encouraged him. to start your own business. “I started with healthy food, because there is a hospital here, but people didn’t like healthy food that much, they told me that in Juárez they like meat more and I started with homemade Turkish food,” said Ömer, who arrived in Mexico without speaking Spanish and who is still learning the meaning of some words on this border. Far from his two older brothers, his mother and his grandmother, ten months ago he opened the doors of Un Turco en Cocina on Pedro Rosales Street number 7377, where he offers dishes such as dürüm kebab, a type of Turkish meat burrito. , with a tortilla that is very similar to the flour tortilla. It also offers the traditional Turkish trompo, which consists of sirloin meat that is prepared with a Turkish-style marinade and allowed to rest for two days before cooking it in mesquite. Salsa macha with his grandmother’s recipe, desserts and traditional Turkish coffee are also part of his cuisine or the products he imports from his country, which during his absence suffered the increase in prices of basic products that make him want to stay. in Mexico. After growing up in a city with more than 15 million inhabitants, on the border between Europe and Asia, and then living in Mexico City, Ömer said that he prefers to live in smaller cities like Juárez, where he has discovered that it is expensive live, but has found the support to undertake. Ömer does not know if he is the only Turk currently living in Ciudad Juárez, since the only one he has met was a Turk with a Mexican girlfriend, but he decided to return to his country; However, in recent years this border has been the passage for thousands of Turkish migrants to the United States. According to official statistics from the US Government, during fiscal year (FY) 2021, Border Patrol agents recorded the entry of 1,206 people from Turkey through the El Paso Sector, in FY-2022 the figure multiplied to 15,038 encounters of this nationality on the border, in FY-2023 the irregular crossings of Turkish people decreased to 6,146, and in the eleven months from FY-2024 only 22 people were detected. A minority has also arrived at the official ports of entry to the United States: during fiscal year 2021 six Turks were processed by agents assigned to the CBP Field Operations Office in El Paso, in FY-2022 there were 10 Turks that arrived at the official ports of entry to the United States and seven more in FY-2023, but in FY-2024 none arrived at the international crossings in El Paso.
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