The number of Iranians crossing into Turkey has dropped by about a third since the start of the Iran war, with Tehran now restricting its citizens from crossing the border, Turkey’s interior minister said late Thursday.
“Since the start of the war, our citizens have been able to cross into Iran without restriction. However, Iran has imposed restrictions on its own citizens and is not letting them cross to our side,” Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi told journalists.
He did not say when the exit restrictions began.
At first, Iranians had been able to cross into Turkey, AFP correspondents at the Kapıköy border crossing said, although their numbers appeared limited.
“Since the start of the war, there has been a fall of a quarter or almost a third in the number of Iranian citizens crossing into Turkey,” Çiftçi said.
At the same time, he said, “there has been an increase in the number of Iranian citizens crossing from Turkey to their side,” without providing figures.
There are three crossings along the 500-kilometer frontier between Turkey and Iran.
On March 2, both sides agreed to suspend day-trip crossings.
“We have been closely monitoring our border crossings and observing the entries and exits since the start of the war,” Çiftçi said, adding that there were “no problems at the moment.”
Turkey has not released updated figures on border crossings since March 4, when Çiftçi said around 2,000 people were crossing in each direction.
Iran’s neighbors have long feared that an attack on the country could destabilize the region and trigger a refugee influx. So far, that has not happened despite nearly three weeks of US-Israeli airstrikes.
Turkey currently hosts more than 74,000 Iranians with residence permits and about 5,000 refugees.
© Agence France-Presse