Turkey Building Bulletproof Watchtowers Along Syrian Border - Reports

Turkey reportedly continued efforts to reinforce its border with Syria.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Turkey is building 21 bulletproof and portable watchtowers on the border with Syria where part of the wall, separating the two countries, has already been constructed, Yeni Safak newspaper reported Friday.

The watchtowers will be placed at a certain interval on the border line, the media said.

The five-floor watchtowers will be equipped with all necessary facilities that troops stationed there might require, the daily added.

The windows of the watchtowers will be bulletproof and their walls will be fortified to withstand explosions, according to the media outlet.

A 454-mile stretch of a wall has already been built. Its construction is expected to be finished by October. The full length of the wall will be 515 miles and it is supposed to span the entire length of Syrian-Turkish border. According to Turkey's Customs Minister Bulent Tufenkci, Ankara restricted passage through the Cilvegozu checkpoint in the country's southern Hatay province, which borders Syria, in connection with the terrorist threat from the war-torn state.

Turkey is also building a wall on its borders with Iran and Iraq, citing the threat from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is considered by Ankara a terrorist organization. Tensions between Ankara and the Kurdish pro-independence PKK escalated in 2015, after a three-year ceasefire between the two sides collapsed over a series of terror attacks allegedly committed by PKK members, prompting Ankara to launch a military operation in the Kurdish-dominated southeastern regions.