Turkey declares ‘special security region’ by Syrian border

GAZİANTEP

This file picture taken on October 4, 2014 shows Turkish soldiers checking the Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruc, Sanliurfa province. AFP Photo

The Governor’s Office in the southeastern province of Gaziantep on Turkey’s border with Syria has declared a hot zone in the province a “special security region” for 15 days, in order to help security personnel fight against terror and breach threats. 

The regulation authorized the gendarmerie and the police headquarters in the province to control all vehicle and human traffic, ban it when deemed necessary and take any other security measures in the specific area known as Ada, which is normally under the control of the Köprübatı border post, in the town of Karkamış.  

“This is a measure taken within the framework of the sensitiveness of the region,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Dec. 11, before leaving the country for Turkmenistan. 

“It is a decision [to be in effect] for 15 days, for now. Developments [in the region] will show what will come after the 15 days,” he said. 

Turkey has been tightening measures on its borders against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants and the People’s Protection Units (YPG). Turkey has repeatedly said the YPG, the armed wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria, should not pass west of the Euphrates River. 

Turkey has said the YPG is no different than the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). 

Following fresh explosions in Jarabulus, the Syrian town under ISIL control, and an increased risk of attacks, wagons were placed by the border.