ANKARA: Turkey has completed more than half of a 144 km (90 mile) wall onits border with Iran and will finish it next spring, the firm building thebarrier said, as Ankara secures its frontiers from smuggling, illegalimmigration and militant infiltration.
State housing developer TOKI, better known for low-cost, high-riseapartment blocks in Turkey’s major cities, has also been building a wall onthe border with northern Syria where Kurdish fighters and hardlinemilitants hold territory.
“We started this (Iran wall) in the summer, but the season is very shorthere. Currently, 80 km of this 144 km has been completed, and when seasonalweather conditions permit, God willing, we will have finished by nextspring,” TOKI President Ergun Turan told Reuters.
President Tayyip Erdogan said last year Turkey would build walls along itsborder with Iraq and part of the border with Iran similar to the nearlycompleted one on its longest border, with Syria.
The wall with Iran, which will stretch along the northern third of Turkey’sIranian frontier, aims to prevent smuggling and infiltration by KurdistanWorkers Party (PKK) militants, Turkish officials have said.
Since the construction of the wall along the Syrian border, militants fromDaesh and other groups have also tried to use smuggling routes through Iraninto Turkey, they said.
In an interview late on Tuesday, Turan said all but a small portion of thewall along the 911 km border with Syria had been finished, despite fallingbehind schedule because of the weather and security concerns.
“All but 25-30 km have been completed, including the road… We can say itis at 98 percent,” Turan said, referring to the security roads TOKI isbuilding alongside the walls.
The agency is also playing a leading role in government efforts to rebuildparts of southeastern Turkey, which has been damaged by the heavy fightingbetween the military and Kurdish militants since the collapse of aceasefire in 2015.
Ergun said TOKI were building 25,000 housing units in the region’sworst-hit areas, and added the agency aimed to deliver 20,000 of thosehomes by the end of the year.
TOKI will also construct “industry sites” in three provinces, Ergun said.He said tenders would be held for the three projects, in Aksaray, Bolu andDiyarbakir, by the end of January, totaling up to 1 billion lira ($263million).
Overall, Ergun said he expected TOKI to build between 60,000 and 65,000housing units in Turkey this year, after having built 65,000 and 60,000 in2016 and 2017 respectively, and around 820,000 since 2003.
He said TOKI would invest around 16 billion lira ($4.24 billion) inprojects this year, adding that half of the projects be in housing whilethe other half in government projects including stadiums, hospitals andschools.