Army

Army

Intâ€™l military exercises kick off in Turkey

31 May 2016 10:35 (UTC +04:00)

Baku – APA. The “Efes” live firing exercises organized by the Turkish Armed Forces for the first time has begun at the Doganbey position in the Seferihisar region of Izmir Province.

Military servicemen from Turkey, Azerbaijan, the United States, Germany, England, Poland, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar are participating in the exercises, the Turkish newspaper Milliyet reported.

Joined by a total of 7,500 military servicemen—among them 900 foreign servicemen, the exercises for the first time involve tactics relating to conventional war as well as cyber war and psychological warfare tactics, and counter terrorism.

The evening and night exercises held from 19:30PM to 10:10PM May 30 were observed by 255 official representatives from 79 countries including Chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces Hulusi Akar, Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik, Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov, the chiefs of the general staff of Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, the deputy chief of the general staff of Poland, the commands of Pakistan and Japan ground troops.

The exercises started with submarine defense and attack commando units picking up landing forces form the sea and special forces sending down landing forces from air. Soldiers from Turkey, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Poland, Qatar and Saudi Arabia carried out an operation of infiltrating to a land area from the sea. Sea mines were found and disarmed. After the reconnaissance by special forces, artillery fire was opened to the land from the sea. Then F-16 jets and "Cobra" helicopters pounded the targets. Long-range artillery was used against enemy attack on the landing forces. Red targets representing enemy tanks were struck by missiles. After the allied forces came under attack from air, air defense forces intervened. Turkey’s local attack helicopters live fired at the exercises.

In accordance with the scenery of the exercises, two countries named Arnland and Torrike fought a test war against each other. Torrike invaded an island controlled by Arnland. And this country appeals to the UN. Under the decision of the UN, Turkey led a military alliance comprised of the troops of friendly countries Azerbaijan, the US, Germany, England, Poland, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. The friendly countries liberated the island from Torrike.

The morning exercises today will be observed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.