"Ankara can prevent the infiltration of jihadi elements across the border, but [Islamic] State continues to transport jihadists, taking advantage of the situation in the region," journalist Ali Demirhan said.
Turkey is fully capable of using its intelligence and security forces in the fight against militants, he noted.
"A large number of servicemen are deployed at the border and [at] its crossings. The state strictly controls the border and knows everything," Demirhan asserted.
The Turkish authorities have begun implementing a variety of security measures to stem the flow of terrorists across the border, sources in the Turkish town of Antakya near the Syrian border, said.
"They strengthened the[ir] control over the border a year ago, after the killing of a Turkish border guard in [the district of] Yayladagi by Nusra Front militants. However, before, throughout the Syrian crisis, they’ve been keeping the borders open," one of the sources noted.
A former head of Karbeyaz village in the Hatay province echoed the words of the local sources, confirming that the Turkey's frontier service had intensified its control in recent years.
Al-Nusra Front militants do not even have to hide their identities, they move freely through the streets of the town of Yayladagi along with the local population and cross the border whenever they want, a resident of the town stated.
The Turkish security services have continuously insisted that they are attentively patrolling the 550-mile southern border with Syria. However, militants of various radical Islamist groups continue to slip through the Turkish-Syrian border.
Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia continued to see militants crossing the border between Turkey and Syria and weapons being smuggled into the war-torn country.
