Turkey reopened one of its border crossings with Syria to civilian travel on Monday after a 12-year closure, state media reported, in another sign of improving ties between Ankara and Damascus.

Passport holders can now pass through the Akçakale gate in Turkey's southeastern Sanliurfa province," Anadolu reported.

"The crossing was closed to civilian traffic in 2014, due to the civil war in Syria, and since then it has only been used for the distribution of humanitarian aid," said Akçakale Mayor Abdulhakim Ayhan, of the ruling AK Party.

Akçakale also served as a launch pad for Turkey's 2019 military operation against Kurdish militias in northern Syria.

Across the border lies the Syrian city of Tal-Abyad, currently administered by the Syrian transitional government under the leadership of President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Relations between Turkey and Syria have been strained since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011.