ANKARA *– Turkish interior minister said his country defends the plan tobuild a ‘security wall’ on border with Iran, stressing the project is beingcompleted soon.*

The 144-km barrier on Iran-Turkey border is aimed at preventing illegalrefugees from entering Turkey, Süleyman Soylu said at a press conferencebeing reported on Wednesday.

The ‘security wall’ will also prevent the terrorists from infiltrating intothe borders of the two countries, Soylu told reporters.

Over 7,000 Afghan refugees have illegally entered Turkey through theIranian borders and been deported back to their country, Soylu said.

Asked about the reason of construction of the wall, the Turkish ministersaid the goal behind the project is to counter terrorism and drug smugglingactivities and prevent the Afghan refugees from illegally entering Turkey.

Despite the move, the Turkish officials have said that they feel noanimosity towards the Afghan refugees and see them as their brothers, buttheir illegal entry into Turkey has endangered national security here, saidthe the Turkish minister.

Turkey and Afghanistan are Iran’s western and eastern neighborsrespectively.