MESOP NEWS : Turkey reopens only border crossing with Syria

15 Sep 2015 – Turkish border authorities reopened the only official border crossing between Turkey and Syria on Tuesday after a member of a Turkish border patrol was killed last week by gunfire from the Syrian side of the border.

Ankara attributes last Thursday’s incident to smugglers opening fire from Syrian territory. Turkish border officials and rebel representatives who control the Syrian side of the border subsequently met for several days of talks, the Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing Administration, the Syrian bureau that runs its side of the border, posted to their Facebook page on Sunday. Turkish border authorities began to allow trucks carrying commercial goods and aid to cross into and out of Turkey on Monday morning, also allowing humanitarian cases and the ill who have documents documenting their health status to receive treatment in Turkish hospitals, Ammar Abu Yasser, a Syrian spokesman for the Bab al-Hawa crossing told Zaman al-Wasl. Transit travelers and those with interviews in foreign embassies in Turkey were also allowed through on Monday. Coinciding with the reopening, Bab al-Hawa administrators announced that border personnel and security forces would tighten security measures at all crossing facilities in order “to preserve the safety of our Syrian brothers, travelers and workers and employees and hajj pilgrims.” Turkish authorities previously closed all ground border crossings with Syria except for Bab al-Hawa this past March, although there are reports of unofficial movement at the Bab al-Salama crossing in Aleppo province as well.