Sputnik - Turkish authorities have begun the construction of a huge wall along the border with Iran, claiming that this fortification is needed to protect the country against the Kurdistan Workers' Party.




The wall will be comprised of 7-ton concrete blocks, each of them 3 meters high and 2 meters thick. According to Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper, the Turkish government is building this wall along the Iranian border in order to curtail the activities of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) – the left-wing Kurdish organization which is recognized as a terrorist organization by Ankara.

However, Iranian political analyst and Middle Eastern affairs expert Seyyed Hadi Afghahi told Sputnik Persian that Turkey’s endeavor is counterproductive in terms of security, as there has never been a security threat arising from its border with Iran and the past, and there still isn’t to this day.
"And if Turkey is so concerned about its security, why did it target Iran instead of building a wall along the border of Syria – the main traffic terminal for real terrorists. Logic dictates that terrorists are moving across the Turkish-Syrian border, not the border between Turkey and Iran. Today terrorists flee from Syria to Turkey to recuperate so as to rejoin fighting later on or to relocate to other countries," Afghani said.


He pointed out that terrorist attacks in Turkey were perpetrated by Daesh (ISIL/ISIS) militants who infiltrated the country via the Syrian border, and that the PKK does not operate on Iranian soil.

Furthermore, he noted, Turkish armed forces moved deep into Syrian territory, effectively "invading another country", but at the same time Ankara claims that it needs to build a wall to protect itself against some kind of Iranian "aggression."
"This is a politically motivated double-standards approach which is counterproductive in terms of security," Afghani surmised.


Meanwhile, Dr. Ardeshir Pashang, expert on Kurdish affairs in the Middle East, remarked that the PKK does not operate in Iran, and that this organization was created in Turkey as a response to Ankara’s Kurdish policies which triggered mass protests and led to a military confrontation that continues for four decades.
"Until this Turkish domestic conflict gets resolved via peaceful means, building walls of any kind, including the one along the Iranian border, won’t help improve security in Turkey," Pashang explained


He noted that the lack of dialogue between Ankara and the Kurdish opposition in Turkey further exacerbates the problem, and that building some sort of border fortification would hardly improve the current state of affairs.
"In this situation, building walls is simply inappropriate. It is just another way for construction companies to stuff their pockets: according to several Turkish media outlets, these companies have direct ties to the upper echelons of Turkish government," he added.