ISTANBUL: Turkiye 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 EU member states. Turkiye 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 Turkiye, told reporters.

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

Turkiye shares a 200-kilometre 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 of its frontier with Turkiye, 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 Turkiye as migrants flocked there to avoid the perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2025