Off the wire
• Leading goal scorers of French Ligue 1  • Chicago agricultural commodities settle lower  • French Ligue 1 result  • French Ligue 1 standings  • U.S. dollar climbs on Yellen's remarks, data  • UN mission in Central African Republic beefs up presence in Bambart to protect people  • Iran says troops deployment to Syria by U.S. to help extremism  • Polish PM leaves hospital  • 2 extremists killed by army in midwest of Tunisia  • UN relief wing voices alarm at Boko Haram attacks on vulnerable people in Nigeria  
You are here: 　 Home

Damascus accuses Turkey of building separation wall in northern Syria

Xinhua, February 18, 2017 Adjust font size:

The Syrian Foreign Ministry accused Turkey on Friday of bringing in equipment to build a separation wall in northern Syria, according to state news agency SANA.

In a letter of condemnation sent to the UN, the ministry said the Turkish government's aggression on Syria soil is incessant.

On Jan. 11, the Turkish forces and border control guards brought in heavy machines and trucks into Syrian territories in northern Syria, particularly in the northern countryside of Hasakah province, making a dirt road and digging a trench while installing cement pillars to build a separation wall.

Three days later, the Turkish forces entered the Syrian territory at a depth of 250 meters in the town of Arab Tuma in the northern countryside of Aleppo province, and began to make a two-kilometer road to build a separation barrier in that area.

The ministry said that Turkish trucks yanked 2,500 olive trees in the Sheikh Hadid town in Aleppo countryside and captured areas to build a cement wall, while moving the fence at the Turkish Syrian borders 100 meters deep inside Syrian territories with a length of 600 meters.

The Turkish forces also repeated the move in the northwestern province of Idlib, which also has borders with Turkey, saying that the Turkish forces captured six acres of lands in the Harem area in Idlib countryside that belong to Syria citizens with the same aim to build the wall.

Moreover, the ministry said that the Turkish authorities have set up a military base in the village of Jitar in Aleppo countryside, containing arm depots and barracks for Turkish officers and soldiers.

The ministry condemned the Turkish "incursion," adding that it is a continuation of the Turkish violations that include providing various forms of military, material and logistic support to the rebels, bringing foreign "terrorists," facilitating their entry into Syria and setting up training camps for them on Turkish soil under direct Turkish intelligence supervision and providing arms and fire cover to the terrorist groups fighting inside Syria.

It urged the UN to pressure Turkey into halting its "violations against Syria and to implement UN Security Council resolutions pertaining countering terrorism."

Turkey has for long spoken of its intentions to create safe zones in northern Syria, and the recent revelation by the Syrian government regarding the Turkish wall building in northern Syria nurture the conviction that Ankara is moving on with its plans.

Syrian government officials recently said that any unilateral international actions without the consent of the Syrian government will be dealt with as violations to Syria's sovereignty.

President Bashar al-Assad said in a recent interview that setting up safe zones in northern Syria is "unrealistic." Endit