The Turkish state builds walls around itself due to their Kurdophobia, and the latest installment is the wall on the Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan) border, following the 700 km wall on the Rojava-Northern Syria border. The Turkish state aims to de-Kurdify Northern Kurdistan with plans similar to the Settlement Policy in Ottoman times and the Republic’s Eastern Reform Plan, while continuing to build walls to sever the Kurds’ connection to the other parts of Kurdistan.

BUILDING A WALL ON THE ROJHILAT BORDER

The Turkish state has set out to build another wall on the Rojhilat border after they built one on the Rojava-Northern Syria border. The wall construction project was launched by the Turkish National Defense Ministry that plans to build a 140 km wall on the Iğdır and Ağrı border in the first phase. TOKİ (Housing Development Administration of Turkey) has opened a public tender for the project, which will build a wall of 3 m high and 2 m wide concrete blocks similar to that on the Rojava border.

THEY CALLED IT THE “GREAT WALL OF CHINA”

The Turkish state started building walls around itself following the Rojava revolution and carried out efforts to build a wall and barbed wire approximately 700 km long on the Rojava-Northern Syria border in 2014. The wall starts in Hatay and continues to Dêrik, and was constructed in 14 separate locations. It is the third longest wall in the world after the Great Wall of China (8850 km) and the US-Mexico border wall (3500 km). Turkish media calls the wall “The Great Wall of Turks”

TURKISH STATE’S ATTEMPT TO FIX THE FAILED BORDERS

With the wall they are building on the Rojhilat border, the Turkish state wants to continue the Kasr-ı Şirin treaty signed between the Ottoman Empire and the state of Iran that divided Kurdistan in two. The Kasr-ı Sirin treaty was signed on May 17, 1639 and the border it created between the Ottoman Empire and the Iranian (Safevi) state was mostly preserved up to date. Even though it has been 400 years, the Kurdish people never accepted the drawn border. It is significant that the Turkish state attempts to fix the failed borders with walls in another May, while the wall built on the Rojava-Northern Syria border is an attempt to uphold the Turkey-Syria border drawn in the treaties of Sykes-Picot dated May 16, 1916, Lausanne dated July 23, 1923 and finally June 5, 1926.