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Turkey mostly mum on chemicals seized on Syria border

The latest chemical-seizure incident is drawing attention to lax control of Turkey’s border.
A Turkish military armoured vehicle patrols on the border line near Turkish Cilvegozu border gate, located opposite the Syrian commercial crossing point Bab al-Hawa in Reyhanli, Hatay province, September 17, 2013. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS SOCIETY IMMIGRATION CONFLICT MILITARY) - RTX13OB0

Turkey, which has adhered to an "open border" policy for the Syrian opposition forces since the eruption of the civil war in Syria, has finally started to take some visible measures along its border after accusations of being the “country that allows passage to al-Qaeda." One of those measures is the wall being erected at Nusaybin. This barrier, already labeled “the wall of shame," is actually targeting not al-Qaeda, but the Kurds who are fighting Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham. Another measure of note has been the increasing control of border crossings by the Turkish army.

Chemicals seized but suspect released

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