Türkiye deploys 60,000 military forces along borders, official says

ANKARA

Türkiye stations a total of 60,000 military personnel along its 3,000-kilometer land border, a Defense Ministry official has revealed.

The ministry's planning and operations department head, Brig. Gen. Serkan Bircan, made a presentation to a parliamentary commission on border security in a bid to address concerns related to irregular migration and refugees.

The physical security infrastructure along the border is composed of modular concrete walls, patrol roads, watchtowers, reinforced mesh wires and ditches, as outlined by Bircan.

Moreover, he described a surveillance system that includes various components such as cyber optical detection, line-length cameras, land surveillance radar, mobile surveillance vehicles, remote-controlled weapons, signal jammers and an acoustic shot location detection system.

Türkiye, sharing its land borders with eight countries, maintains a presence at the border with seven border brigades, six border regiments and 9,000 reinforcement soldiers, totaling 60,000 personnel, according to Bircan.

He argued that these measures have prevented the passage of over 180,000 irregular migrants since the beginning of the year, leading to the apprehension of 10,600 of them.

Additionally, 563,000 individuals, primarily associated with FETÖ, the group behind the 2016 failed coup, have been handed over to law enforcement forces, he said.

Further details on protection systems were provided, including the completion of 85 modern police stations with high physical protection. Bircan also mentioned that 12 more such stations are under construction, along with 119 additional police stations. Eighty modular base areas have been completed in high-altitude regions.

Bircan elaborated on the surveillance technology, stating that radar systems are capable of detecting people and vehicles up to 10 kilometers away. These radar systems offer multiple target tracking, 360-degree coverage and are operational in diverse meteorological conditions ranging from minus 30 to plus 55 degrees, he informed.

Thermal cameras are also used for detection within a range of up to five kilometers, both day and night, while an additional camera is designed to enable detection in foggy weather from a distance of 16 kilometers, he said.

The borders are further fortified with electronic towers approximately 50 meters in height, integrating cameras and reconnaissance and surveillance systems, Bircan stressed.

An elevator tower system, standing at 25 meters, employs radiofrequency waves to detect spaces up to 20 meters below the ground with tunnel search devices.

For added security, cables buried a meter deep along the patrol roads can detect walking, running and vehicle movements approaching the border, he shared.

This information is promptly transmitted to surveillance centers, ensuring a swift response to potential breaches.

"In high-traffic areas, camera trap systems built into the landscape shape automatically capture photographs and images when movement is detected, forwarding this data to monitoring centers," Bircan added.