From our parking location behind Eruh, it took us two hours to get to Cizre. We did good shopping in Migros, and after that, we decided to take the cake with coffee and leave the town around 10 pm towards the Ibrahim Khalil border.
It was supposed to be the easiest crossing between Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey. Well, everything went wrong, and we spent on Turkish side more than 8 hours. First, we have chosen the wrong lane (you have to take the left lane), and it took us 15 minutes to get out of there (there is no exit, and you have to reverse back while trucks are arriving and queuing in three rows). After we got into the correct lane, we were stopped by some man just a few meters before the border. He was insisting that we have to fill up the passenger list and for that, he was asking 10 EUR fee. Of course, we were not sure about it, but we did risk it and drove away. Of course, it was a pure scam.
At the first checkpoint, they quickly checked our passports and allowed us to drive into the border complex. At the second checkpoint, we got passports stamped at the right booth and registered our truck to leave Turkey at the left booth (the office couldn’t find the truck in the system, so the procedure took a while). Then we were supposed to drive out through the exit gate, and that was where our problems started.
Of course, again, they couldn’t find the truck in the system and sent us back. It repeated two times. Then the officer from a new shift at the customs booth told us we should drive to x-ray the truck. It took us another hour searching the way to that building, crossing several gates, asking people around, etc. Nobody speaks English at this border, nobody has uniforms, nobody is helpful, and there are no signs at all. After the x-ray procedure, the rude officer arrived and told us to follow him with some other cars, again through the whole complex, to the “Hangar” where they were searching the smugglers’ cars and our truck. They searched it several times and, of course, couldn’t find anything. They were so frustrated that they called another unit with a dog named Alpha and were searching the truck again and again. Well, after a long time, when totally idiotic dog damaged several cables in the cabin and ate our gloves, they let us sign a document that nothing was damaged and let us go to find the way out.
We again registered the truck, but again it was not in the system, and again, we couldn’t exit the last gate. After a very long time, they just let us go through the last gate. It was the worst experience with the border crossing we ever had.
Border location: 37.150753N 42.567511E (🚻 – 1 TRY – in the duty-free shop)