[1] Kapıkule, situated on the State road D100 (D.100) and European route E80, is also an important gateway for cargo transport to the countries east of Turkey.

In the dawn of the Revolutions of 1989, the Kapıkule border crossing saw a mass exodus of Turks fleeing the forced assimilation laws of the mid to late 1980s in the People's Republic of Bulgaria into Turkey.

To meet the demand resulting from growing international crossings, the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) signed an agreement with the government in August 2007 to completely overhaul the facilities on Build-Operate-Transfer basis at a cost of 132 million TRL (US$100 million in 2007) in exchange for twenty-year operation.

High tech security equipment like smart-card controlled access, closed-circuit television and X-ray truck cargo check systems are installed at the border area.

[3] On 24 May 2023, 104 followers of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light seeking asylum in Bulgaria were detained at Kapıkule and violently harassed by Turkish authorities.