![Greece–Turkey land border](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Greece%E2%80%93Turkey_land_border.svg)
The Greece–Turkey border ( gr, Σύνορα Ελλάδας–Τουρκίας, translit=Sýnora Elládas–Tourkías, tr, Türkiye–Yunanistan sınırı) is around long, and separates
Western Thrace
Western Thrace or West Thrace ( el, υτικήΘράκη, '' ytikíThráki'' ; tr, Batı Trakya; bg, Западна/Беломорска Тракия, ''Zapadna/Belomorska Trakiya''), also known as Greek Thrace, is a geographic and histori ...
in Greece from
East Thrace in Turkey.
Course
It mostly follows the river
Evros. At some places the border does not follow the main course of the river, mainly because the river has been straightened.
Barrier
It is the external border of the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
. In 2012, a high
border fence was erected along the land border where it is not separated by the river, because of the
European migrant crisis
The 2015 European migrant crisis, also known internationally as the Syrian refugee crisis, was a period of significantly increased movement of refugees and migrants into Europe in 2015, when 1.3 million people came to the continent to reques ...
. In addition there is a sea border which sometimes goes through straits of a few kilometres width.
Aegean dispute
Between the two countries, there are political disputes over several aspects of political control over the
Aegean space, including the size of territorial waters, air control and the
delimitation
Boundary delimitation (or simply delimitation) is the drawing of boundaries, particularly of electoral precincts, states, counties or other municipalities. of economic rights to the
continental shelf. These issues are known as the
Aegean dispute
Aegean may refer to:
*Aegean Sea
* Aegean Islands
*Aegean Region (geographical), Turkey
*Aegean Region (statistical), Turkey
*Aegean civilizations
* Aegean languages, a group of ancient languages and proposed language family
* Aegean Sea (theme), ...
. Turkey doesn't recognize a legal continental shelf and
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) around the Greek islands.
History
![Territorial Expansion of Greece from 1832–1947](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Territorial_Expansion_of_Greece_from_1832%E2%80%931947.gif)
After the
Greek War of Independence ended in 1829, the Greek state covered a fraction of its present territory. The first Greco-Ottoman border was the
Aspropotamos–Spercheios line, followed in 1832 by the
Arta–Volos line, which remained in effect until the
annexation of Thessaly in 1881. The
Balkan Wars of 1912–13 led to an extension of Greece northward, but at the same time, due to the advances of Serbia and Bulgaria, Greece ceased sharing a land border with the Ottoman Empire. This changed again in 1919–20, when Greece gained
Western Thrace
Western Thrace or West Thrace ( el, υτικήΘράκη, '' ytikíThráki'' ; tr, Batı Trakya; bg, Западна/Беломорска Тракия, ''Zapadna/Belomorska Trakiya''), also known as Greek Thrace, is a geographic and histori ...
,
Eastern Thrace
Eastern may refer to:
Transportation
*China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai
*Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways
*Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991
*Eastern Air Li ...
, and the
Smyrna Zone.
Following the
Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, the present course of the border was established in 1923 by the
Treaty of Lausanne, which also left the so-called "
Karaağaç Triangle" ( el, Τρίγωνο του Καραγάτς), a suburb of the city of
Edirne
Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis ( Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders ...
, Turkey, as a Turkish exclave on the western side of the river. This territory was ceded during the Lausanne negotiations in exchange for Turkey abandoning its claim for
war reparations
War reparations are compensation payments made after a war by one side to the other. They are intended to cover damage or injury inflicted during a war.
History
Making one party pay a war indemnity is a common practice with a long history.
...
on Greece.
The Greek-Turkish border, as defined by Lausanne, is effectively a reaffirmation of the
Bulgarian-Turkish border set out by the
Treaty of Constantinople (1913)
The Treaty of Constantinople (Treaty of İstanbul) was a treaty between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Bulgaria signed on 29 September 1913 after the Second Balkan War at the Ottoman capital Constantinople, modern İstanbul.
Background ...
ten years earlier, but this time with Greece as party, as Bulgaria had ceded Western Thrace to Greece in the
Treaty of Neuilly
The Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine (french: Traité de Neuilly-sur-Seine) required Bulgaria to cede various territories, after Bulgaria had been one of the Central Powers defeated in World War I. The treaty was signed on 27 November 1919 at Neuilly ...
after World War I.
European migrant crisis
Because the refugees entering Europe in 2015 were predominantly from the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...
, the vast majority first entered the EU by crossing the Aegean Sea from
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
to
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
by boat; Turkey's land border has been inaccessible to migrants since a border fence was constructed there in 2012. , 124,000 migrants had arrived into Greece, a 750 percent increase from 2014, mainly refugees stemming from the wars in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Greece appealed to the European Union for assistance, whilst the
UNCHR
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of t ...
European Director Vincent Cochetel said facilities for migrants on the Greek islands were "totally inadequate" and the islands in "total chaos". Frontex's Operation Poseidon, aimed at patrolling the
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans ...
, is badly underfunded and undermanned, with only 11 coastal patrol vessels, one ship, two helicopters, two aircraft, and a budget of €18 million. In September 2015, the photos of dead 3-year-old
Alan Kurdi, who drowned when he and his family were in a small inflatable boat which capsized shortly after leaving
Bodrum
Bodrum () is a port city in Muğla Province, southwestern Turkey, at the entrance to the Gulf of Gökova. Its population was 35,795 at the 2012 census, with a total of 136,317 inhabitants residing within the district's borders. Known in ancient ...
trying to reach the Greek island of
Kos
Kos or Cos (; el, Κως ) is a Greek island, part of the Dodecanese island chain in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Kos is the third largest island of the Dodecanese by area, after Rhodes and Karpathos; it has a population of 36,986 (2021 census), ...
, made headlines around the world. Konstantinos Vardakis, the top EU diplomat in
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...
, told ''The New York Times'' that at least 250 Iraqis per day had been landing on Greek islands between mid-August and early September 2015.
After the
2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt
On 15 July 2016, a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces, organized as the Peace at Home Council, attempted a coup d'état against state institutions, including the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. They attempted to seize cont ...
Greek authorities on a number of
Aegean islands have called for emergency measures to curtail a growing flow of refugees from Turkey, the number of migrants and refugees willing to make the journey across the
Aegean has increased noticeably. At Athens, officials voiced worries that Turkish monitors overseeing the deal in Greece had been abruptly pulled out after the failed coup with little sign of them being replaced.
At the start of the
2020 Greek–Turkish border crisis in late February 2020, migrants started to gather at the Greek-Turkish land border after Turkish president
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that he would no longer "block" refugees and migrants' "access to the border", and opened the border with Greece.
Turkey's government was also accused of pushing refugees into Europe for political and monetary gain.
During March 2020, the migrants repeatedly tried to cross the border fence but they were blocked by Greek
army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
,
police
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...
, and small detachments of policemen from Austria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, and Poland, who defended the fence and resisted the migrants using
tear gas
Tear gas, also known as a lachrymator agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial aerosol, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In ...
. Among those who illegally attempted to cross were individuals from Africa, Iran, Afghanistan, and Syria. Greece responded by refusing to accept asylum applications for a month.
As migrants tried to breach the border fence using tools, they also set fires, threw stones, and
Molotov cocktail
A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see other names'') is a hand thrown incendiary weapon constructed from a frangible container filled with flammable substances equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with fla ...
firebombs over to the Greek side and there are videos of Turkish security forces in uniform and plain-clothes, firing tear gas at Greek forces and a Turkish armored vehicle attempting to pull down the border fence by tugging on an attached cable.
Sources also verified that there is an undisclosed detention center that founded by Greek forces for expelling the migrants without any legal process.
On 2 March, Muhammad al-Arab, a Syrian asylum seeker was shot dead on Turkish soil from away. According to an analysis by
Forensic Architecture, the victim was shot by Greek soldiers standing at the border.
On 4 March, Turkish authorities reported that the Greek border guard used live rounds and injured asylum seekers. Forensic Architecture reviewed the evidence and found that one Pakistani, Muhammad Gulzar, was killed and seven were wounded, and determined that it was "highly probable" that the live rounds came from the Greek side of the border.
According to an article by Der Spiegel, it’s "quite possible" that Gulzar was shot accidentally, by a
ricochet
A ricochet ( ; ) is a rebound, bounce, or skip off a surface, particularly in the case of a projectile. Most ricochets are caused by accident and while the force of the deflection decelerates the projectile, it can still be energetic and almost ...
. The shooting of Gulzar has been dismissed by Greek government spokesmen, as "fake news" spread by the Turkish authorities.
There is still no commonly accepted account of what happened on both incidents.
By 11 March 2020, 348 people who illegally crossed the borders had been arrested and 44,353 cases of unlawful entry had been prevented.
Crossings
There are three crossings along the entire border, two for vehicular traffic and one for vehicular and rail traffic. The busiest of three,
İpsala
İpsala (, ) is a town and district of Edirne Province in northwestern Turkey. It is the location of one of the main border checkpoints between Greece and Turkey. (The Greek town opposite İpsala is Kipoi.) The population is 8,332 (the city) an ...
, is among the busiest border checkpoints in the world.
See also
*
Greece–Turkey relations
Relations between Greece and Turkey began in the 1830s following Greece's formation after its declaration of independence from the Ottoman Empire. Modern relations began when Turkey declared its formation in 1923 following the defeat of the Ott ...
References
Articles containing video clips
European Union external borders
Borders of Greece
Borders of Turkey
Border barriers constructed during the European migrant crisis
Thrace
International borders
{{foreign-relations-stub