MESOP LATEST : Turkey Starts Building Wall on Syrian Border – The Turkish military will dig trenches behind the wall on the Turkish side of the border

Basnews | Luke Coleman | – 15.08.2015 13:35 – ANKARA – The official Turkish Anatolia news agency on Friday reported that the Turkish Armed Forces have begun work on a 3 metre high wall along an 8 kilometre stretch of the Turkey – Syria border.The military will dig trenches behind the wall on the Turkish side in the Reyhanli district of Hatay Province, which faces the town of Atmeh on the Syrian side.The development is in response to a series of attacks carried out by suspected Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in the border regions.

Hostilities between the Ankara government and the PKK were reignited following the Suruç bombing in which a total of 33 Kurdish youth activists were killed. Officially blamed on Islamic State (IS), many Kurds accused the police of being at worst complicit in the incident, at best failing to prevent the attack. Two policemen were subsequently assassinated, in an operation not sanctioned by PKK command, but carried out by members of the People’s Defence Forces (HPG), a military wing of the PKK. The wall is being built by the Hatay Governorate and the 2nd Border Regimental Command, and is expected to be completed soon.