Turkey to build wall on Turkish-Iranian border

Abdulkadir Selvi – ANKARA

REUTERS photo

Turkey is planning to build a wall along the Turkish-Iranian border as part of measures against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), according to a high-level official.

“The PKK has the Maku, Dambat, Navur, Kotr, Keneresh and Şehidan camps inside Iran near the Turkish border. There are some 800-1,000 PKK terrorists in those camps. They enter Turkey, carry out attacks and leave,” an official told daily Hürriyet on May 8, adding that they escape to those camps when security operations are conducted in the eastern province of Ağrı and the Mount Tendürek region. 

“As a precaution against this, we are going to build a wall along 70 kilometers of the border near Ağrı and [the eastern province of] Iğdır, and we will close the rest of it with towers and iron fences. In addition, we are placing lights on the border,” he also said. 

Turkey previously built a wall along the Syrian border in order to prevent the PKK and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from carrying out suicide attacks. 

Moreover, cameras will be set up along the highway between the eastern province of Tunceli and the neighboring province of Elazığ as part of measures against the PKK. The high-level official said activities along the 140-kilometer-long road will be kept under surveillance 24 hours a day.

“They previously set up a bomb in a culvert near a road that a military motorcade was going to use on the Elazığ-Tunceli highway. The bomb was found and it was neutralized. We will watch that highway with cameras 24 hours a day. Cameras will be set up, and the process will be concluded as soon as possible,” he said. 

According to the official, the security forces who carry out operations against the PKK and ISIL need morale.

“The security forces need high spirits in this process. We need to strengthen their mood,” he said. 

The official also talked about the operations carried out against the PKK in cities. 

“The PKK was sending armed terrorists to city centers in order to put pressure on cities. The gendarmerie and the police coordinated very well. In the last two or three weeks, we determined and neutralized them in the city centers. Furthermore, we immediately intervened when armed drones spotted PKK militants. After that the group started changing its tactics. It took decisions such as, ‘Armed militants won’t go to the cities, they won’t move in groups of 15 or 20, they will travel around in groups of three or four,’” he said.