Border between Bulgaria and Turkey

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Border station Kapıkule to Bulgaria from Turkey

The Bulgarian-Turkish border ( Bulgarian Границата между България и Турция Granizata meschdu Balgarija i Turzija , Turkish Türkiye-Bulgaristan sınırı ) is a 270 km long international border between the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of Turkey . It was established by the Treaty of San Stefano in 1878 as an internal border within the Ottoman Empire . The current borders were established by the Treaty of Constantinople (1913) and ten years later by the Treaty of Lausanne , although Bulgaria was not a party to that treaty at the time. During the Cold War, the border was secured with a massive barbed wire fence and the Bulgarian border troops were ordered to use firearms when attempting to escape. In the 1960s and 1970s, numerous GDR citizens perished at this border.

  • Bulgaria
  • Turkey
    • Border on the Black Sea

    In the public eye the limit by cases of fell trafficking , organized escape assistance by tugs and smuggling of drugs, in part by corruption favors. Alcohol and European goods are mostly smuggled into Turkey from Bulgaria, as the prices in Turkey are higher than in Bulgaria.

    As early as January 2014 and thus before the refugee crisis in Europe from 2015 onwards , Bulgaria began building a 30 km long border fence on this external border of the EU along the Turkish border in order to curb the growing number of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa . The fence is attached to NATO barbed wire and is three meters high. The Bulgarian army completed the first part of the fence in July 2014 for the sum of around 5 million euros. In early 2015, the government announced a 130 km extension of the barbed wire border fence. Prime Minister Boyko Borissov described the extension as 'absolutely necessary' in order to prevent people from illegally entering the member state of the European Union. The Bulgarian Parliament had decided to continue the construction of the fence on the border with Turkey without starting a public procurement procedure, as national security had to be preserved. The last part of the fence thus completely closes the Bulgarian land border with Turkey. By March 2016, almost 100 km of the planned 166 km and from June 2016 a further 146 km of the barrier had been built. Work on the fence was then completed in 2017. The Turkish Ambassador to Bulgaria, Suleyman Gokce, expressed concern about this border lock, adding that it creates 'dissatisfaction' and gives cause to 'reflect on the political impact' of the fence conveyed. Time and again there are deaths in the border area.

    Borderline

    The distance between the westernmost and easternmost points is 269 km at 142 km as the crow flies. This already shows that the course is very tortuous due to the demarcation of borders in rivers and geographical conditions. It makes monitoring difficult. On the Bulgarian side, the border area, also as a side effect of the Cold War , was only very sparsely populated, but as the border between the Warsaw Pact and NATO, it was also strongly developed militarily. Due to the often unfavorable conditions, the Bulgarian border area , which is often impassable due to the Strandscha Mountains, is still only sparsely populated. On the Turkish side, some villages and agricultural areas extend to the border line. There is hardly any interest in a small border traffic . Therefore, the massive expansion to ward off refugees and illegal migrants in the EU area remains without significantly affecting cross-border traffic. There are only four official crossings along the entire border, three for vehicle traffic and one for rail traffic. The border crossing Kapikule is one of the frequented most in the world and he is also the starting point of the Asian Highway 1 , which from here over 20,500 kilometers as far as Tokyo leads

    BulgariaBulgaria Bulgaria ⇄ TurkeyTurkey Turkey position
    Kapitan Andreewo , Chaskovo The border triangle Bulgaria - Greece - TurkeyBulgariaBulgaria GreeceGreece TurkeyTurkey  Kapıkule Sınır Kapısı , Edirne 41 ° 42 '40 "  N , 26 ° 21' 28.7"  E 41 ° 42 '49.3 "  N , 26 ° 21' 16.2"  E
    A4N8 E80 Passenger and freight transport D100E80
    O3
    A1A5     		41 ° 43 '3.1 "  N , 26 ° 21' 10.3"  E
    Svilengrad , Haskovo Истанбул-София Експрес railroad İstanbul-Sofya Ekspresi 41 ° 43 ′ 18.6 "  N , 26 ° 20 ′ 50"  E
    Lesovo , Yambol Oblast N7 Passenger and freight transport pedestrian D535 Hamzabeyli , Edirne 41 ° 57 '36.1 "  N , 26 ° 36' 30.9"  E
    Strandscha , Boljarowo Border passage of the TurkStream gas pipeline Malkoçlar , Kofçaz / Kırklareli 42 ° 3 '36.5 "  N , 27 ° 1' 41.3"  E
    Northernmost point of Turkey 42 ° 6 '17.4 "  N , 27 ° 14' 22.3"  E
    Malko Tarnowo , Burgas N9 Passenger and freight transport D555 Dereköy , Kırklareli 41 ° 58 '6.5 "  N , 27 ° 27' 39"  E
    Tsarevo , Burgas Oblast Iron Curtain Trail (EV13)Fahrrad.svg No Easternmost point of the sea ​​border
    on the Black Sea     		No Beğendik , Kırklareli 41 ° 58 ′ 58.2 "  N , 28 ° 1 ′ 46.5"  E
    Waterbody.svgMaritime border of the territories Waterbody.svg 41 ° 59 '  N , 28 ° 19'  E

    See also

    Notes and individual references

    1. ↑ a b c Marc Speer; Mathias Fiedler: Get out! On the situation of refugees in Bulgaria. June 2020, accessed June 23, 2020 .
    2. ↑ Border problems:
    3. ^ Rick Lyman: Bulgaria Puts Up a New Wall, but This One Keeps People Out. New York Times , April 5, 2015, accessed August 8, 2019 .
    4. ^ Dnevnik (Sofia): Bulgaria under increasing pressure. VOXeurop, September 26, 2013, accessed on August 10, 2019 .
    5. ↑ Angel Krasimirov, Tsvetelia Tsolova: Bulgaria to extend fence at Turkish border to bar refugee influx. Reuters , April 12, 2015, accessed August 11, 2019 .
    6. ^ Parliament OKs Building of Border Fence Without Public Procurement. Sofia News Agency, accessed August 11, 2019 .
    7. ↑ Caroline Mortimer: Bulgaria builds final part of razor wire fence to keep out refugees. The Independent , August 4, 2015, accessed August 11, 2019 .
    8. ^ Migrant crisis: Bulgaria tightens border with Turkey. BBC News , March 6, 2019, accessed August 11, 2019 .
    9. ^ Bulgaria: Refugees between imprisonment and homelessness. Accessed April 21, 2020 (German).
    10. ^ Turkey's Ambassador to Bulgaria Voices Dissatisfaction with Border Fence. Sofia News Agency, May 31, 2015, accessed August 11, 2019 .
    11. ↑ a b Opened September 4, 1953
    12. ↑ The border crossing for the railway line İstanbul Sirkeci – Swilengrad has existed since 1971. The border station on the Turkish side is Kapıkule , the one on the Bulgarian Swilengrad . For some years now, only one passenger train has crossed the border here per day. Freight traffic is important.
    13. ↑ Opened on November 22, 2004
    14. ↑ SYTHER - Sakar - Yildiz Trans-European hiking trail. It runs 100 km through Bulgaria and 218 km through Turkey to the Black Sea. Demanding route through two mountains ( Sakar and Strandscha )
    15. ↑ This is where the BOTAŞ gas pipeline crosses the border. It is a northern branch of the TurkStream pipeline ( Turkish : Rusya Federasyonu-Türkiye Doğal Gaz Boru Hattı )
    16. ↑ The cape in front of the İnceburun lighthouse near Sinop, which is often incorrectly stated as the northernmost point of Turkey, is at 42 ° 05'54 "N 34 ° 56'42" E and therefore ≈755 m further south. It is just the northernmost tip of Asiatic Turkey.
    17. ↑ Opened July 18, 1969
    18. ↑ This is where the international Iron Curtain Trail (EV13) cycle route ends
    19. ↑ border river Resovo River ( Bulgarian Резовска река Řešovská reka ; Turkish Mutludere )
    20. ↑ Most distant point of the common sea ​​border of the territories in the territorial sea.