ISTANBUL – Turkiye plans to build an 8.5-km wall on its western border where neighbors Greece and Bulgaria have already erected their own fences, a local governor said.
The barrier is aimed at preventing migrants crossing into EU member states.
Turkiye has in the past built walls on its border with Iran and Syria.
“For the first time we will take physical security measures this year on our western border,” Yunus Sezer, governor of Edirne in northwestern Turkiye, said.
The governor said that initially an 8.5-km wall was planned, adding it could be extended.
“We will start from the border with Greece and from there, God willing, it will continue in the upcoming period depending on the situation,” he added.
Turkiye shares a 200-km frontier with Greece and the border is separated along the Evros River, called Meric in Turkish.
In 2012, Greece built two 3-meter tall, barbed wire barriers along 11 km of its frontier with Turkiye, which has previously been mined.
It later tripled the length of the fence, with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis vowing to extend it to more than 100 km by 2026.
In 2014 Bulgaria put up a 30-kilometer razor wire fence along its border with Turkiye as migrants flocked there to avoid the perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing.
Four years later the fence was extended to cover almost all of the 259-km border.
AN-AFP
