Turkey Begins Building Wall Along Iran Border

Date: 08 August 2017 - 21:32

News ID: ۴۲۶۵۹

ISTANBUL (Dispatches) -- A Turkish media report said on Tuesday Turkey has begun construction of a wall along the country's frontier with Iran, mimicking the Turkish barrier along the Syrian border.
The private Dogan news agency said the governor of Agri province, Suleyman Elban, inspected the construction of the security wall. The Turkish authorities are constructing the 2-meter wide, 3-meter high barrier with portable blocks, the report said.
Turkey is building the wall along parts of the Iranian border to boost its security by halting the infiltrations of Kurdish militants and illegal smugglers, the report said.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced in January plans to build a wall along its borders with Iraq and Iran, similar to the one currently being erected along the 911-kilometer frontier with Syria.
Iran has said it welcomed Turkey's plan to build the 144-kilometer wall along its border. Beside terrorists, smugglers also use the border to bring in bootleg goods such as alcohol from Turkey and northern Iraq.
In May, Iran said it had asked for explanation from Turkey after a cross-border attack left two Iranian border guards dead on Saturday.
"The subject has been announced to the Turkish government through diplomatic channels and we are awaiting their response," Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi told a weekly news briefing in Tehran.
Seven border guards were also injured when PJAK terrorists attacked them while they were changing posts, before retreating into Turkey.
"This is an unpleasant incident. We don't like to have insecure borders with Turkey. We hope that with the prudence, responsibility and response of the Turkish government, we can take a decision," he added.
Iran’s border police chief also said Turkey should be held accountable for the deaths of the Iranian border guards and for letting terrorist groups operate in its border areas.
"We consider Turkey liable and the country should be held accountable for this act of terrorism,” Tasnim news agency quoted Brigadier General Qassem Rezaei as saying Sunday.
PJAK is an offshoot of Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and is known for carrying out random hit-and-run attacks against Iranian targets, after which they retreat to their lairs in Turkey as well as Iraq.
They carry out their attacks in parts of Iran's West Azerbaijan province which borders Iraq, Turkey, and Armenia. Rezaei said "unfortunately, in the areas bordering Turkey, we witness activities by terrorist groups under various pretexts.”
"Terrorist groups are one of the plots of the world arrogance. They once used to go on rampage in the country’s northwest and operate within our borders. But, today they are based outside our borders," Rezaei said.
"The blows which have been dealt to terrorist groups by security, military and defense forces have forced them to carry out their idiotic acts somewhere else but they will receive a teeth-breaking response anyway," he added.