[Today’s Prayer] Civilian Crossing Reopens at the Türkiye–Syria Land Border for the First Time in 12 Years

Turkish authorities announced on the 11th (local time) that a border checkpoint connecting Türkiye and Syria by land will reopen after 12 years.

In a statement, the Şanlıurfa provincial government in southeastern Türkiye said, “Beginning Tuesday the 12th, entry and exit procedures for passport holders traveling to and from Syria through the Akçakale border checkpoint will resume.”

This checkpoint connects the Turkish town of Akçakale to the northern Syrian town of Tell Abyad.

The checkpoint had been completely closed since 2014, the year after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war. After the 2019 “Operation Peace Spring,” in which Turkish forces and some Syrian rebel groups participated to secure a buffer zone, only limited use for humanitarian aid and public purposes had been permitted.

Now, after the Sunni Islamist armed group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), supported by pro-Turkish forces, overthrew the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad and established a transitional government in December 2024, the civil war has come to a halt and the checkpoint is being fully reopened.

The Şanlıurfa provincial government explained that the following groups will be permitted to enter and exit through the checkpoint:

• Turkish citizens

• Syrian citizens with dual nationality

• Syrian citizens residing in Türkiye with valid residence or work permits

  
  

Source: Yonhap News

“They shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:9)

We hear the news that the Akçakale border checkpoint between Türkiye and Syria is reopening after 12 years, allowing civilian passage once again.

God, just as You have opened a way for countless Turkish people and Syrian refugees to cross through the full reopening of this checkpoint, which had only been used in a limited way since the long civil war, we pray that the blocked door of the gospel in Syria would now also be opened wide.

Please remember the Syrian refugees who lost their homes because of the civil war and risked their lives crossing borders to live for many years as strangers in foreign lands. Pour out Your mercy and compassion upon them.

Lord, our refuge, become the eternal dwelling place for the people of Türkiye and the Syrian refugees, and let Your kingdom of peace — where there is no more harm or destruction — come upon both peoples.

Through this event, let the local churches in Türkiye and Syria unite and serve one another through the gospel, and may they proclaim the gospel beyond Syria to the Arab world and all nations.

Also, let the global church pray for and support the local churches in Türkiye and Syria together, and send out workers to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the Arab world and all nations, so that the knowledge of God may fill all the earth just as the waters cover the sea.

And so, may Türkiye and Syria become nations that advance to the ends of the earth carrying the gospel and proclaiming the cross of Jesus Christ.