Turkey's Syria borders an open door for smugglers
Guns, people and stolen goods move with surprising ease and regularity over a sensitive border.
“Multidimensional” is a term the Turkish government loves repeating to inflate the wisdom of Turkey’s foreign policy. Its applicability to other fronts may be debated, but it surely prevails along the 910-kilometer (565-mile) border with Syria.
Gates open and close at the whim of the opposition groups that control them and remain locked if controlled by Kurds. States legitimize illegal activities under the cloak of reinforcing the opposition in the Syrian civil war but dig trenches to prevent "undesirable illegal crossings" and erect movable concrete walls. Armies of smugglers, depending on their connections, are either given free rein or caught in the act, and refugee camps are set up right on border firing lines. As if the 10- to 15-kilometer (6- to 9-mile) deep buffer zone created by the new rules of engagement was not enough, we now have a point-zero the opposition uses to fire its mortars. Syrian radars lock on to Turkish F-16s while preventing Syrian planes from coming near the Turkish border, and trucks cross the border with mysterious loads.
Not a day passes without some incident occurring that is reminiscent of colorful western movies. If you want to see how unconventional life can be along the border, all you need to do is glance at the daily incidents reported on the Turkish Armed Forces' website.
Border crossing statuses offer a true spectacle of the reigning unconventional way of life while also reflecting the fragmentation of Syria's civil war:
