Turkish-Syrian border

The border between Turkey and Syria is almost as impregnable as the Inner German border between #DDR and West Germany. a 250 meters wide minefield separates Syria from Turkey proper. South of this minefield runs the old (Berlin to) Istanbul to Baghdad railroad on a 10 meters wide strip on the Turkish side of the border. South of the border Syrian fields extend right up to the railway.
This no-man's land and minefield was created to stop Kurdish "terrorist" from entering or leaving Turkey. The minefield extend from Hatay in the West to Iraq and beyond. If it can stop PKK it could as well stop ISIS and al-Nusra.

At any time if the United States truly wanted to strike an irreparable blow at ISIS forces, it could simply seal off the Turkish border across which the summation of ISIS’ supplies, fighters, weapons, and vehicles flow. By securing the Turkish-Syrian border to the north, and the Jordanian-Syrian border in the south, the United States could strangle ISIS out of existence in a month, if not sooner.
- — Tony Cartalucci, US Complains as Russia Bombs Its Terrorists - New Eastern Outlook, October 1, 2015
Sources
- Shocking video shows ISIS fighters chatting with Turkish border guards - Daily Mail, October 28, 2014
- The amateur footage, filmed on Zarova Hill near Kobane, raises serious questions about the apparently relaxed relationship between the terror group and Turkish…
- Turkey completes one-third of portable wall on border with Syria - Hurriyet Daily News (October 19, 2015?)
- Turkey has erected 11.5 kilometers of aportable wall on its Syrian border that will run to 36.5 kilometers once completed. AA Photos.
- (Portable walls have the added feature of being able to be moved partly for friends to still pass through.)
- U.S., Turkey working to finish shutting off northern Syria border: Kerry - Reuters, Nov 17, 2015
- Russia ready to consider steps to close Turkish-Syrian border — Lavrov - TASS, November 25, 2015
- Two journalists arrested for story on intelligence trucks bound for Syria, Hurriyet, 26.11.2015
Cumhuriyet Editor-in-Chief Can Dündar and the daily’s Ankara Bureau Chief Erdem Gül were arrested Nov. 26 due to a story about Turkish intelligence trucks bound for Syria in early 2014. Footage released by Cumhuriyet on May 29 reportedly showed gendarmerie and police officers opening crates on the back of trucks which contained what the daily described as weapons and ammunition sent to Syria by MİT in January 2014.
- Leopard 2A4 carry Turkey to Syria towards the Russian T-90! - A good opportunity for Greece... (ProNews report, photo) , Linked video-Sabra Mk1 upgraded M60A1 Tank.
- Turkey moved tanks to the Syrian border, Riafan.ru, 29.11.2015:
Turkey has put forward more than 1,000 pieces of equipment, including Leopard tanks, self-propelled artillery, missile launchers, armored infantry, armored demining equipment. According to the Greek agency ProNews, machinery was moved from the border with Greece, and the area of responsibility of the 1st Army of Turkey. In total, it is reported more than 1,000 pieces of equipment being transferred from Eastern Thrace to the Syrian border. About a quarter of the Turkish forces of the 1st Army is reported to redeploy to the borders of Syria. There is also evidence that a significant amount of engineering vehicles had been transferred as part of the forces deployment, including amphibious vehicle "Samur", which are used for pontoon crossings over water obstacles, which suggests that the Turkish forces are preparing to attack.
- Turkey gives the cold shoulder to US proposal to seal Syria border, Hurriyet Daily News, Dec 3, 2015.
- Report: *Syrian troops in the anti-terrorist operation in the north of the province of Latakia unblocked important roads in the Armenian-populated region of Kessab through Qastal Ma'afu. Pro-Turkish militants are 'in the cauldron'. Syrian army destroyed the "Al-Nasr" battalion commander, the Syrian Turk Aquila Juma (the battalion belongs to the First Coastal Brigade of the Free Syrian Army).map.
- Russian MOD: Turkish artillery is firing into Syria, TASS, Feb. 1, 2016. Russian MOD received from Syrian opposition a video confirming shelling by Turkey.
- King Abdullah of Jordan, The Guardian, Mar. 25, 2016:
- The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, “believes in a radical Islamic solution to the problems in the region” and the “fact that terrorists are going to Europe is part of Turkish policy, and Turkey keeps getting a slap on the hand, but they get off the hook”.
- Housing Development Administration to Entirely Block Syrian Border, BIAnet, September 28, 2016
- “The Ministry of National Defense (MSB) and governorships had closed 200 km of the Syrian border. As TOKİ we have made a tender of 200 km and we are in preparation of other 400 km. “We have been continuing with our work of ‘putting up the wall’ for 15-20 days. We will have it completed the border wall of 700 km in five months.
- Turkey and Syria: Blood, Tears, and Walls, Andre Vltchek, March 5, 2017
- In June 2018 Turkish media reports that a total of 764 km of border wall have been constructed.
- Turkish-Syrian Border: Confusion, Destruction and Grief, Andre Vltchek, July 1, 2018
- Wikipedia
- Baghdad Railway - Wikipedia
- Inner German border - Wikipedia
- Ottoman Caliphate (1517–1924) - Wikipedia
Open borders for rebels
- Syrian rebels say reinforcements get free passage via Turkey - Today's Zaman, February 18, 2016
- At least 2,000 Syrian rebel fighters have re-entered the country from Turkey over the last week to reinforce insurgents fending off an assault by Syrian Kurdish militias, rebel sources said on Thursday.
- The rebel fighters, with weapons and vehicles, have been covertly escorted across the border by Turkish forces over several nights before heading into the embattled rebel stronghold of Azaz, the sources said. "We have been allowed to move everything from light weapons to heavy equipment mortars and missiles and our tanks," Abu Issa, a commander in the Levant Front, the rebel group that runs the border crossing of Bab al-Salam, told Reuters, giving his alias and talking on condition of anonymity. "There is tight security on the four-hour drive from one border crossing to the other," he added, saying rebels being transported excluded the hardline Jabhat al-Nusra Front fighters and other jihadist groups.
- A Turkish security source confirmed fighters had crossed the border but put the numbers at 400-500 and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks violence across the war torn-country, also said hundreds had crossed.
Turkish oil trade with ISIS
- Moved to Turkish oil trade with ISIS