ANKARA: After sealing a significant part of its border with Syria with a 560-mile-long barrier, Turkey has now started to construct a security wall along its border with Iran in Agri province, with the aim of preventing border smuggling and illegal crossings by terrorists.
The wall is being built by Turkey’s state-owned construction enterprise TOKI.
In a statement before the latest annual Supreme Military Council meeting on Aug. 2, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced that as a security precaution, the government had accelerated its measures under the “integrated border security program” against terrorist infiltration of Turkey’s southern border.
Prof. Mehmet Seyfettin Erol, head of Ankara-based think-tank ANKASAM (Ankara Center for Crisis and Policy Studies), said Turkey had undertaken the construction of the new wall to help maintain its relationship with Iran.
“This wall is a deterrent against an unauthorized immigrant influx. Although this does not change Turkey’s humanitarian policy for Syrian immigrants, it now intends to follow a more regular approach toward immigration,” Erol told Arab News. He cited rising instability in the region, the emergence of radical terrorist groups, and a network of Kurdish militants spread across several countries as further reasons behind the decision.
“The walls cannot prevent terrorist attacks on their own. However, they deter people, and complement a country’s efforts for border management,” he said.
In March, Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak announced that some 3 million new refugees from Iran — mostly Afghans — could attempt to come to Turkey.
“A total of 30,000 refugees came in through the eastern Turkish provinces of Igdir and Agri in 2016 alone,” Kaynak said during an interview with CNN Turk, adding that about 3,000 unauthorized migrants had already crossed into Turkey from Iranian border since the beginning of 2017.
Metin Gurcan, an ex-military officer and security analyst at the Istanbul Policy Center, said this wall should be seen as preparation for — and part of the transition to — the post-Daesh period.
He said that one of the reasons for Daesh’s emergence was the ease with which the group was able to move people and military equipment across borders, adding that smuggling had proved to be “an important financing tool for extremism.”
“Iran and Ankara have convergent interests in the region for preventing extremism and smuggling,” Gurcan told Arab News.
According to Gurcan, effective management of the border will be beneficial for both countries because it will help prevent the spread of regional Kurdish groups across the Iran-Turkey border. He explained that, for geographic reasons, protecting that border is very challenging.
“Turkey will not only construct a wall, but it will use a technology-intensive approach, with the use of smart towers, thermal imaging, unmanned weapons systems and other surveillance capacities, backed by unarmed drones,” Gurcan added.
The head of the Ankara-based Center for Iranian Studies (IRAM), Ahmet Uysal, said the wall would protect the Turkish people from external security threats linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and other related organizations that are financed by income from smuggling.
“Refugees and asylum seekers from Iran, Afghanistan and even Pakistan also use this route to reach the West,” Uysal told Arab News.
“Iran is well known as a leader of armed militias in the Middle East,” Dr. Ali Bakeer, an independent expert on Iran-Turkey relations, told Arab News. “Tehran has proved that it has the ability and the will to use terrorist organizations to achieve political goals and to blackmail regional players.”
Bakeer added that building a wall on the Iranian border is part of Turkey’s comprehensive plan to secure its borders against non-state actors and terrorist organizations.
Turkey plans to construct security wall on Iranian border
Turkey plans to construct security wall on Iranian border
Washington presses Syria to shift from Chinese telecom systems
- Syria is exploring the possibility of procuring Chinese technology
- It was unclear whether the United States pledged financial or logistical support to Syria to do so
DAMASCUS: The United States has warned Syria against relying on Chinese technology in its telecommunications sector, arguing it conflicts with US interests and threatens US national security, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
The message was conveyed during an unreported meeting between a US State Department team and Syrian Communications Minister Abdulsalam Haykal in San Francisco on Tuesday. Washington has been coordinating closely with Damascus since 2024, when Syria’s now President Ahmed Al-Sharaa ousted longtime leader Bashar Assad, who had a strategic partnership with China.
Syria is exploring the possibility of procuring Chinese technology to support its telecommunications towers and the infrastructure of local Internet service providers, according to a Syrian businessman involved in the procurement talks.
“The US side asked for clarity on the ministry’s plans regarding Chinese telecom equipment,” said another source briefed on the talks.
But Syrian officials said infrastructure development projects were time-critical and that Damascus was seeking greater vendor diversity, the source added.
SYRIAN OFFICIALS CITE US EXPORT CONTROLS AS TELECOMS BARRIER
Syria is open to partnering with US firms but the matter was urgent and export controls and “over-compliance” remained an issue, according to person familiar with the meeting in San Francisco.
A US diplomat familiar with the discussions told Reuters that the US State Department “clearly urged Syrians to use American technology or technology from allied countries in the telecoms sector.”
It was unclear whether the United States pledged financial or logistical support to Syria to do so.
Responding to Reuters questions, a US State Department spokesperson said: “We urge countries to prioritize national security and privacy over lower-priced equipment and services in all critical infrastructure procurement. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”
The spokesperson added that Chinese intelligence and security services “can legally compel Chinese citizens and companies to share sensitive data or grant unauthorized access to their customers’ systems” and promises by Chinese companies to protect customers’ privacy were “entirely inconsistent with China’s own laws and well-established practices.”
China has repeatedly rejected allegations of it using technology for spying purposes.
The Syrian Ministry of telecommunications told Reuters any decisions related to equipment and infrastructure are made “in accordance with national technical and security standards, ensuring data protection and service continuity.”
The ministry said it is also prioritizing the diversification of partnerships and technology sources to serve the national interest.
Syria’s telecom infrastructure has relied heavily on Chinese technology due to US sanctions imposed on successive Assad governments over the civil war that grew from a crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011.
Huawei technology accounts for more than 50 percent of the infrastructure of Syriatel and MTN, the country’s only telecom operators, according to a senior source at one of the companies and documents reviewed by Reuters. Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Syria is seeking to develop its private telecommunications sector, devastated by 14 years of war, by attracting foreign investment.
In early February, Saudi Arabia’s largest telecom operator, STC, announced it would invest $800 million to “strengthen telecommunications infrastructure and connect Syria regionally and internationally through a fiber-optic network extending over 4,500 kilometers.”
The ministry of telecommunications says that US restrictions “hinder the availability of many American technologies and services in the Syrian market,” emphasizing that it welcomes expanding cooperation with US companies when these restrictions are lifted.
Syria has inadequate telecommunications infrastructure, with network coverage weak outside city centers and connection speeds in many areas barely exceeding a few kilobits per second.
