Turkey to build first wall on Greece border

Turkey shares a 200-kilometre (120 miles) frontier with Greece and the border is separated along the Evros river

Turkey to build first wall on Greece border

Turkey plans to build an 8.5-kilometre (5.2-mile) wall on its western border where neighbours Greece and Bulgaria have already erected their own fences, a local governor said.

The barrier is aimed at preventing migrants crossing into the EU member states.

Turkey 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 Turkey, told reporters

The governor said that an 8.5-kilometre wall was initially 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.

Turkey shares a 200-kilometre (120 miles) frontier with Greece, and the border is separated along the Evros river, called Meric in Turkish.

In 2012, Greece built two three-metre tall barbed wire barriers along 11 kilometres (seven miles) of its frontier with Turkey, 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 kilometres by 2026.

In 2014, Bulgaria put up a 30-kilometre razor wire fence along its border with Turkey 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-kilometre border.

Turkey’s western coasts are also a starting point for migrants aiming to reach Greek islands.

In February, six migrants drowned while another 27 were rescued by the coastguard when their boat started sinking off the western coast of Turkey.