I’ve now travelled along most of the western part of the Turkish-Syrian border - from near the Mediterranean to the Euphrates; through more than 200 kilometers of corn fields, pistachio orchards, melon and watermelon fields, and newly harvested fields with sheep and cows grazing on the stubble.
There are lots of farm roads, some of them nicely paved with asphalt and some of them just rough gravel roads, along the Turkish side of the border.
I was generally within five km (about three miles) of the border, often close enough that I could have thrown a rock across the border if I had wanted to, and several times right on the border. The border is usually just an old fence with some old razor wire strung along its top, but there are long strips of mined land along many parts of Turkish side of the border. Very rarely you can see little faded red signs with “Mine” written on them in these mined areas.
For an area which is considered to be bordering an active war zone very little, other than crops growing in the fields, is happening along most of this part of the border. There is generally no sense of crisis or heightened security. In a few places small numbers of Syrians were waiting patiently on the Syrian side of the border for the Turkish military to come and pick them up and transport them to a camp.
I stopped often and talked with the people living there. The most remarkable thing I observed was that the people who live along the part of the border between Turkey and the Afrin District of the Aleppo Governorate (the district is under the control of the Kurds who live there) were very relaxed and told me that that part of the border was completely quiet.
I passed a lot of (15-20) the small Turkish military outposts which are strung along the border. They all seemed to be relaxed with only a few armed soldiers standing at their entrances doing their guard duty. I did not see any military or police patrols along the border, and in total saw only two light tanks and one rocket launcher.
I had seen coverage in the English media which seemed to be trying to give the impression that the border crossing and camp just south of Kilis were constantly busy with large numbers of Syrians crossing into Turkey, and with many wounded Syrians being transported across the border to the hospitals in Kilis.
I was doubtful about this because the last time I was there not much was happening and my friends in Kilis tell me that it is generally very quiet there.
While I was there nothing was happening. I talked to the Turkish police and civilians there and they also told me that not much was happening. They said that they just had to stay there under the baking sun guarding the entrance to the camp and manning the border crossing, that every once in a while someone comes across the border, and that occasionally a wounded Syrian was brought across the border.
I got the impression, and it was only an impression, that the Turkish government has spread the word that they really don’t want a lot of Syrians coming across the border now since nothing which puts them in immediate danger is happening in the area just south of the border.
The Turkish Government and Turkish Red Crescent Society recently began a program of handing emergency food supplies over the border to Syrians - without anyone actually physically crossing the border - in southern Hatay, south of Kilis, and in the area west of the Euphrates.
There were about a dozen reporters at the border crossing standing under the scorching sun forlornly pointing four or five video cameras at the border gate hoping that something, anything, would happen for them to cover.
The reporters, especially the foreign reporters, in Antakya (Hatay) generally didn’t bother to leave their hotels.
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I apologize for the shortness of these posts but please remember that I am on the move and quite tired. When I have time I will write more in more detail.
These are links to my earlier posts on this:
Background
Part 1
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