General Director of the Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKİ) Ergun Turan told Anadolu news agency some three months ago that the first phase of construction project of Iran-Turkey border wall will be completed by the end of September. IRNA reports.
The Turkish government has claimed that the wall is aimed to help the fight against new terrorist threats against the country.
Ankara has released no data about the probable costs of the project, but the experts predict that the wall construction will cost Turkey between 1.5 and 2 million dollars per kilometer which will account for something between 220 and 300 million dollars overall.
The project will be completed in five phases, Turan said.
He said that 15 bullet-proof glass doors will be installed in the wall which will be built of the most highly-advanced security materials.
Shortly after Turkey’s Hurriyet daily announced early in May that Turkish government had plans to build a wall along the border with Iran, an informed source in Iran’s Foreign Ministry said that Tehran welcomed the decision.
Noting that Iran has no opposition to the plan, he said that $2 million of textile is smuggled into Iran via the Turkish border which will be prevented in case of building a border wall.
“We even encourage this (building border wall) should happen sooner (rather than later) and flow of contraband to Iran should be curbed.”