As the United States heatedly debates a wall on its border with Mexico, Turkey has been quietly building walls on its borders with Syria, Iran and Iraq.

In November 2014, Al-Monitor examined deficiencies in Turkey’s border security system, noting that one reason for the deficiency was — in addition to diverse political reasons — the commitment to a tacit tolerance policy especially on the Syrian border. Moreover, there was the question of the ability to remedy the situation.

However, since August 2016 when Operation Euphrates Shield was launched, Turkey has replaced its tacit tolerance policy with a “zero tolerance” policy. Ankara hopes the security wall along its border will be the pillar of its border security.

Ankara’s first goal is to extend the wall on its approximately 560-mile-long Syria border to its maximum length. The $400 million wall project was launched in September 2016 to prevent terror attacks from Syria, border smuggling and illegal crossings, and to control refugee movements. The first 347-mile phase of the planned 435-mile-long wall that abuts the provinces of Hatay, Sanliurfa, Kilis, Gaziantep, Mardin and Sirnak was completed last week, making it the third longest wall in the world after the Great Wall of China and the nearly 700-mile wall on the US-Mexico border.