Syria–Turkey border
Syria-Turkey border الحدود السورية التركية Suriye–Türkiye sınırı | |
---|---|
Characteristics | |
Entities | Syria Turkey |
Length | 911 km (566 mi)[1] |
The border between the
Description
Since Turkey's 1939 appropriation of the
The border now runs north and east, following the Orontes River for a part of its course, where in 2011 construction of a Syria–Turkey Friendship Dam began (but has since been delayed due to the Syrian Civil War),[4] and east to the Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing on the İskenderun–Aleppo road, then further north to the border between Hatay and Gaziantep Province, where it turns sharply east outside of Meidan Ekbis (Afrin District), at 36°49′48″N 36°39′54″E / 36.830°N 36.665°E.
With the exception of Hatay province, the Turkish side of the border is entirely within the
On the Turkish side, the European route E90 runs alongside the length of the border, crossing the Euphrates at Birecik and the Tigris at Cizre. For the final 30 km the border follows the course of the Tigris, turning towards the south-east, until it reaches the Iraq-Syria-Turkey tripoint at 37°06′22″N 42°21′18″E / 37.106°N 42.355°E.
History
At the start of the 20th century the entire border region was part of the
In 1920 Syria formally became a French mandatory territory, being initially split into a number of states, including the French-controlled Sanjak of Alexandretta (modern Hatay province).[5] By the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres Anatolian Turkey was to be partitioned, with the Syrian-Turkish frontier placed further north than its current position.[6] Turkish nationalists were outraged at the treaty, contributing to the outbreak the Turkish War of Independence; the Turkish success in this conflict rendered Sèvres obsolete.[5] A new border more favourable to Turkey was drawn by the Franco-Turkish Treaty of Ankara in 1921 after negotiations between French Prime Minister Aristide Briand and Turkish Foreign Minister Yusuf Kemal Bey.[5][7][8] By the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne Turkey's independence was recognised and a far more generous territorial settlement was agreed upon, albeit at the cost of Turkey formally renouncing any claim to Arab lands.[9] Following Lausanne, the Syrian-Turkish frontier was delimited more precisely between Meidan Ekbis and Nusaybin in 1926, and between Nusaybin and the tripoint with Iraq in 1929.[5] A Final Delimitation Protocol covering the entire boundary east of Hatay was then confirmed and deposited with the League of Nations on 3 May 1930.[5]
A special case was what is now Turkey's Hatay province, which remained autonomous until 1923, then
Syria gained independence in 1944, and the frontier then became one between two sovereign states;
Since the
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, around 471 Syrians civilians, including 86 children and 45 women, have been killed by the Turkish gendarmerie at the Syrian–Turkish border since the beginning of the Syrian civil war.[18]
Border crossings
From west to east, as of 28 December 2022.[19]
# | Turkey | Syria | Type | Status | Control on Syrian side |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Yayladağı | Kessab | Road | Closed | Syria |
2 | Kızılçat | Samira | Closed | Syrian National Army affiliated groups | |
3 | Topraktutan | Yunesiyeh | Closed | Syrian National Army affiliated groups | |
4 | Aşağıpulluyazı | Ein al-Bayda | Closed | Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
| |
5 | Güveççi | Kherbet Eljoz | Restricted | Hayat Tahrir al-Sham | |
6 | Karbeyaz (Yiğitoğlu) | Darkush | Closed | Hayat Tahrir al-Sham | |
7 | Ziyaret | Al-Alani | Closed | Hayat Tahrir al-Sham | |
8 | Cilvegözü, near Reyhanlı | Bab al-Hawa | Road | Open | Hayat Tahrir al-Sham |
9 | Bükülmez | Atme | Closed | Hayat Tahrir al-Sham | |
10 | Hatay Hammamı | Al Hammam | Open | Hayat Tahrir al-Sham | |
11 | İslahiye | Meidan Ekbis | Railway | Closed | Syrian National Army |
12 | Öncüpınar
|
al-Salameh | Road | Open | Syrian National Army |
13 | Çobanbey | Al-Rai | Railway | Open | Syrian National Army |
14 | Karkamış | Jarabulus | Road | Open | Syrian National Army |
15 | Mürşitpınar | Ayn al-Arab
|
Railway | Closed | Autonomous administration (Kurdish-led)
|
16 | Akçakale | Tall Abyad
|
Road | Restricted | Syrian National Army |
17 | Ceylanpınar | Ras al-Ayn
|
Road | Restricted | Syrian National Army |
18 | Şenyurt
|
Al-Darbasiyah
|
Road | Closed | Syria and Autonomous administration (Kurdish-led) |
19 | Nusaybin | Qamishli | Road, railway | Closed | Syria |
20 | Cizre | Al-Malikiyah | Closed | Syria and Autonomous administration (Kurdish-led) | |
21 | Kumlu | Afrin | Open | Hayat Tahrir al-Sham |
Gallery
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Map of the Syria–Turkey border
-
A section of the border wall built by Turkey
-
Map of the Tigris–Euphrates river system across the eastern part of the Syro-Turkish border
-
The Syrian town of Kessab, with the peak of Mount Aqra (Turkey) in the background
See also
- Syria–Turkey barrier
- Syria–Turkey relations
- Syrian–Turkish border clashes during the Syrian Civil War
- Syrian Turkmen
- Kurdistan
- Refugees of the Syrian Civil War
References
- ^ "Türkiyenin Komşuları ve Coğrafi Sınırları". 14 February 2016. Archived from the original on 14 February 2016.
- ^ CIA World Factbook - Syria, 4 April 2020
- ^ The village's population was 583 in 1980 (Türk Dünyası Araştırmaları Vakfı, 1986, p. 142); it was later evacuated due to landslides. There is now a police station and a monument marking the southernmost point of Turkey. Topraktutan forms a small salient into Syrian territory. It corresponds to the Turkish airspace claimed to have been violated prior to the 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown.
- ^ "Construction interrupted for friendship dam along Turkey-Syria border". Today's Zaman. 29 June 2011. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g h International Boundary Study No. 163 Syria-Turkey Boundary (PDF), 7 March 1978, retrieved 4 April 2020
- OCLC 694027.
- OCLC 86068902.
- Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 423.
- ^ Treaty of Peace with Turkey signed at Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, 24 July 1923, retrieved 28 November 2012
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ "Franco-Turkish agreement of Ankara" (PDF) (in French and English). Retrieved 8 August 2014.
- ^ parliament.gov.sy – معلومات عن الجمهورية العربية السورية Archived 2007-06-02 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "The Alexandretta Dispute", American Journal of International Law
- ^ Lundgren Jörum, Emma: "The Importance of the Unimportant" in Hinnebusch, Raymond & Tür, Özlem: Turkey-Syria Relations: Between Enmity and Amity (Farnham: Ashgate), p 114-122.
- ^ Lundgren Jörum, Emma, Beyond Syria's Borders: A history of territorial disputes in the Middle East, (London & New York: I.B. Tauris), p 108
- ^ "Syria refugees brave mines, machineguns to reach Turkish sanctuary". Reuters. 6 April 2012. "IOM distributes aid to Syrian refugees – Society". KUNA. 6 April 2012. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
- ^ Reuters: "Turkish developer confident Syria wall in place by spring" By Nevzat Devranoglu and Orhan Coskun December 9, 2016
- ^ The Daily Telegraph: "Turkey to build 500-mile wall on Syria border after Isil Suruc bombing" by Nabih Bulos 23 Jul 2015
- ^ "In 72 hours | Number of people killed by Turkish border guards increases to four, as woman shot dead in northern Idlib". www.syriahr.com. April 22, 2021. Archived from the original on 23 April 2021.
- ^ "Turkey / Syria: Border Crossings Status (21 July 2020)". ReliefWeb. UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 1 July 2019. Retrieved 22 July 2019.