The Wall: The Making and Unmaking of the Turkish-Syrian Border.

• Author: Kirenci, Ayse Isin

By Ramazan Aras

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, 247 pages, [euro]79.99, ISBN: 9783030456535

Ramazan Aras, in The Wall, provides an ethnographic and anthropological account of the border-making practices of the Turkish state along the Syrian border, which most recently culminated in the building of the Turkish-Syrian security wall. In his detailed examination of borderland literature, fieldwork in the Nusaybin district of Mardin, and semi-structured, in-depth interviews with local people, Aras reveals that borderland people have the agency to counter the state's border-making tools. This agency creates some discontinuities alongside the continuities in the border-making process. Locals maintain their own daily practices between Syria and Turkey, despite the existence of state-imposed control points. The Wall contributes to the literature of Actor-Network theory by revealing the complex and changing nature of relations between state authorities, local people, and objects in the region.

The first two chapters of the book introduce the methodology of the study and the literature review about the border and borderland studies in Turkey. In Chapter 3, the author investigates the gradual process of border-making since the early years of the Turkish Republic through the introduction of the tools of barbed wired fences, landmines, watchtowers, gendarmerie stations, and border gates. Through the use of diverse security tools, borders become "places of performances of state power and control" (p. 50). Therefore, in addition to Aras' critical look at state power, it can be helpful to remember the We-berian concept of the state in which three aspects of statehood are emphasized: territory, people, and a monopoly on the legitimate use of force. A state constantly tries to determine its political borders and to use some forceful mechanisms to ensure that people will not cross those borders, a process that damages the pre-existing economic, social, and cultural networks of local people.

Despite the commitment of the nation-state to its border-making policies, the process is not stable, a fact clarified by the periodization made by the author. Although border security laws had been declared in the 1920s, there were not strict controls on Turkey's borders until the 1950s, which was the result of the weakness of the newly established Turkish state and its institutions (p. 58). Additionally, it is insightful to see how the discourse level differs from the...