Turkey tightens security at Syria border, but still many weak points
Turks and Syrians still moving through unofficial crossings
There are thousands of olive branches here in southeastern Turkey, on the border with Syria, but no peace.
The olive trees grow in the deep red soil in rural Kilis, which Turkish soldiers have been digging up in recent months to create trenches four metres wide and two metres deep.
The trenches are just one of the official attempts to try to keep this border village safe, because beyond the fields, with its olive and pistachio groves, lies one of the world's most scrutinized and dangerous of national boundaries — the almost 900-kilometre stretch separating Turkey and Syria.
Just this week Turkey tightened its borders again, closing its Öncüpinar and Cilvegözü crossings — the last two that were still partially open to allow some aid, but no refugees to get through.
The move was reportedly a response to the threat of a new terror attack.
But, as CBC News went out to explore how some of these new security measures were working, we discovered there are some obvious holes in the system.
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The grassy peak
The Turkish border crossing in Karkamis, for example, is heavily guarded. A cement wall, roughly three-metres tall is one barrier, and barbed wire snakes across it.
Two soldiers patrol the railway tracks that lie parallel to the border, another watches from a nearby post.
When they realize we are gathering images, the soldiers question our camera operator at the gate for about 10 minutes, asking to see his footage before releasing him.
It would be impossible to pass through here unnoticed.
But those who want to get across need only drive a few kilometres through the town to find a different access point.
A local man, too afraid to let us use his name, shows us a grassy peak he's walked others across — though never militants, he insists.
Syria is just a few metres away — we're standing in front of ISIS-controlled Jerablus, less than a kilometre in the distance. From here we can hear gunshots as Kurdish forces clash with ISIS.
Easy access
"Crossing is very easy," Mehmet Seker tells me. He is an MP from the Turkish city of Gaziantep with the opposition CHP party.
Antep, as locals refer to it, is the closest major city to the border towns and villages we visited.
"Young people, husbands, wives and children have crossed through this region," Seker says. "They've come from different countries, they've come for jihad, for adventure," and they include people from Canada, too, he says.
By Seker's count, five thousand people have crossed from Turkey alone to support ISIS. He says at least 22 people from Antep have died in Syria after joining that cause.
In one village, we spot dozens of Syrians gathering in large groups just a few metres from the border on the Syrian side.
There are large holes in two separate spots along the barbed wire fencing.
Turkish soldiers stand guard at one location, but locals tell us they rarely stop anyone from getting through.
A trio of young men, having just made the crossing, pose for a photo.
Throughout the village, there are pockets of white minibuses and yellow cabs waiting for the travellers.
"A certain sector has developed there," local politician Abidin Uslu says. The drivers, he says, will take refugees to other Turkish towns nearby for as little as 20 Turkish lira, which is about $10 Cdn.
Border burden
There was a time before the war when this border was barely a consideration for people who live here.
The Syrians are more than just neighbours for many of the people in this part of Turkey, they're relatives. So crossing back and forth was a part of daily life.
So, too, was smuggling.
From gold and tea, to more serious contraband like drugs, weapons and now people, Seker says. "Women are being smuggled, children…whatever you can think of, there's everything."
In the border city of Kilis, the population is usually around 100,000. But with all the movement across the border, it has exploded to nearly 300,000, and Syrian refugees now outnumber the local population.
In all, Turkey has taken in roughly two million Syrian refugees, calling them "guests" at refugee camps set up by the government.
But there is concern on the part of both local politicians and residents that there is also support for ISIS among some of the newcomers, and Turks themselves.
"There are people here who say 'ISIS has a point'," Seker says. "That's where the danger lies, really."
Turkey says it is doing more than any other country to help Syrian refugees, while regularly detaining and deporting suspected militants.
This week, the Turkish military announced the arrests of nine British citizens as they tried to cross through Turkey's Hatay region into Syria.
Though a critic of the government's policies, Seker concedes that with such a long, flat area to protect there is "no chance of putting soldiers at every point" along the border.
The only way to truly protect that border, he says, is to ensure there's a stable government on the other side.
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