Turkey to open post office branches in Syria’s Aleppo

By Adham Kako

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s national postal authority will open post office branches in the towns of Al-Bab and Cobanbey (Al-Rai in Arabic) in Syria’s northeastern Aleppo province.

Turkey provides educational, healthcare and security services in parts of northern Syria from which the Daesh terrorist group was ejected earlier this year by a Turkish military operation.

Postal, banking and logistics services will be provided once the Turkish General Directorate of Post and Telegraph Organization (PTT) opens branches in both towns.

A building in Al-Bab was recently renovated to be used as a PTT branch office.

In Cobanbey, located across the border from Turkey’s Kilis province, preparations for a new PTT branch office reportedly stand on the verge of completion.

Last month, the PTT opened a branch office in the Syrian city of Jarabulus, located near Turkey’s Gaziantep province.

An official inauguration ceremony, however, has yet to be carried out.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating civil war that began in early 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the fighting and more than 10 million displaced, according to claims by the UN.