Turkey to finish Syrian border wall in five months
September 28, 2016
Turkey will complete a concrete "security wall" along its entire 911-kilometer (566-mile) border with Syria by the end of February, Turkish media reported on Wednesday, citing an official.
Turkey is concerned about Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and has been under pressure from the United States to seal its porous southern border, which has been used by the "Islamic State" and other rebel groups for smuggling weapons, supplies and fighters.
Turkey has already completed 200 kilometers of the border wall since 2014, but to speed up construction the government is enlisting the massive state housing developer TOKI.
TOKI chairman Ergun Turan was quoted by mass circulation daily Hurriyet as saying the remaining 700 kilometers of the border would be sealed off within five months.
"Increasing security along our border with Syria has gained increasing importance for our national security," Turan was quoted as saying. "Completing the remainder of the wall will make our border more secure."
Turkey last month launched an operation in Syria in cooperation with several rebel factions to oust IS from the border and block YPG advances west of the Euphrates river.
It is unclear how the wall would impact Turkey's open door policy towards refugees fleeing conflict.
The wall is being made from 2-meter thick (6.5-foot), 3-meter (10-foot) high portable concrete blocks topped by razor wire.
TOKI has set up five construction sites, each of which is able to produce up to 250 of the 7-ton concrete blocks per day.
Along the entire wall a road is being built for military patrols and watch towers will also be erected.
Turan said the portable nature of the blocks would allow Turkey to move them in the future. "We are constructing the wall in such a way so that tomorrow we can carry it to another place," he said.
He added the wall and road were being built under difficult conditions, including construction near mine fields.
The daily Milliyet reported the estimated cost of the wall and road at nearly 600 million euros ($673 million).