Syrian food flees to Turkey, refugees enjoy Home flavor

Syrian refugees and tourists in Turkish cities will not feel that homesick so much when many of Syrian restaurants' owners have moved their food industry to the new homeland that shares them the same religion, habits with many similarities according to the History and Geography.

Abo Rami. 50, has opened recently a Shawerma restaurant in the most-tourist destination ever, Istanbul, he named it 'Mlek al-Shawerma,' in Arabic 'The King' of this traditional food.

Abu Rami has had a famous shawerma restaurant in Damascus suburbs before fleeing the war-torn country.

'' Syrian Shawerma has a special flavor, its different from the Turkish one, that's why  most of our customers are Turkish and Arabs,'' Abu Rami said.   

Currently there are almost half a million Syrian refugees in Turkey where 2 million Syrians, including one million children, have been forced to flee to neighboring countries, the United Nations says.

Khaled al-Shami, 25, Syrian resident in Turkey, works in Tourism Company, preferred eating in the Syrian new restaurant more than going to the Turkish or other food shops,

'' Eating here after a long day of stress in my work is giving me an amazing feeling as if I was in Syrian right now in Damascus most famous restaurants places like al-Mezeh.'' Al-Shami said.

In relevant news regarding the Syrian refugees,  Syrian refugee children who already know Turkish have been able to benefit from public schools in Turkey. However, the Turkish government is now addressing the problem of Syrian refugee children who don’t know Turkish by providing them with education in Arabic. Kademoon schools in Istanbul are set to open on Monday. Already 6000 children have registered.

 The Turkish government has prepared 55 schools across the country have been catering for Syrian refugee children in Turkey. They have employed Syrian school teachers to teach the children in their own language. Of these 55 schools, three of them are found in Istanbul’s Zeytinburnu, Bagcilar and Esenler, with 2000 students each.

Speaking to Turkey’s Zaman newspaper, Syrian refugee child Yasir Hellaf, 6, said ‘I love Turkey but when the war ends I want to turn back to my country. We ran away from the sound of bombs and guns. We went to Egypt but then war broke out there. Now I am very excited to be starting school here.’ 

The Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011 as a popular uprising against Assad that quickly escalated into civil war.  More than 115,000 people have died in Syria’s ongoing civil war, a monitoring group said Tuesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that more than 41,000 civilians  including 6,000 children and 4,000 women, have been killed during the two-and-a-half-year conflict, Reuters reports. About 41,000 fighters loyal to the government have died, and rebel fighters make up about 23,000 of the dead.

With 5,000 deaths in September alone, international attempts to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons since last month haven’t slowed the bloodshed.

Rebel groups have become increasingly fractured, with Islamic extremists, including those linked to al-Qaida, assuming prominent roles in battle.

Eqtsad, Zaman Alwasl's Business newpaper