Greece constructing a wall on border with Turkey

Fatma Abdelghani

Turkey tries to blackmail European states, especially Greece, using refugees as a pressure card. It threatens to open its borders for the refugees to cross into Greece and then to Europe.

Turkey and Greece share borders. However, the two countries are locked in disputes on several fronts. Greece says it will construct a wall on its border with Turkey.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said his country would start constructing the border wall with Greece this week.

The wall, he said, would seek to prevent illegal migrants from crossing from Turkey into Greece.

PM Mitsotakis noted that the construction of the wall would be completed by April next year.

Greece will spend 27 million Euros to construct the border wall over an area of 27 kilometers. Eight watch towers will be established above the wall. Greece says it will deploy over 400 guards to operate the wall.

The wall, Mitsotakis said, would guard the border area and make its residents feel safer.

Some Greek sources said, meanwhile, that Greek police has beefed up security along the border with Turkey, amid an increase in the number of illegal migrants trying to cross into Greece.

Twenty additional police officers were commissioned in the border area in the past few weeks, the sources said.

This compounds 65 police officers who were transferred to the same area earlier, the sources said.

Greek Minister of the Environment and Energy Kostis Hatzidakis said his country wanted peace to prevail in the East Mediterranean.

However, Greece will defend its rights in the face of Turkish provocations, Hatzidakis said on October 18.

He described Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a “moody” person who cannot be predicted.