Turkey’s multinational military exercise continues on second day

ANKARA

Turkey’s “Eastern Mediterranean Invitation Exercise” of 2019 continued on its second day, on Nov. 11.

The 12-day multinational maritime exercise kicked off on Nov. 10, as Pakistan Navy ship “Alamgir” arrived in Turkey’s Aegean province of Muğla on Nov. 9.

The “Doğu Akdeniz-19” (“Eastern Mediterranean-19” in Turkish) drill will run through Nov. 20.

The naval forces of the U.S., Turkey, Pakistan, Canada, Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, Greece and Spain are participating in the drill.

The Turkish Navy Command has established an exercise-control unit of 170 people and an additional 96 personnel will perform their duties at the headquarters, Yankı Bağcıoğlu, the head of navy operations, told state run Anadolu Agency.

Within this context, 12 planning-coordination meetings have taken place, Bağcıoğlu conveyed, adding that over 200 cases were prepared for the direction of the “free game” phase of the exercise.

“The aim of the exercise is to improve interoperability between friendly and allied nations and to ensure the training of the Turkish High Readiness Naval Force Headquarters, which has been asseverated to NATO,” he said.

“The exercise will be carried out with the wide participation of NATO elements, friendly and allied countries and public institutions and organizations,” he added.

The senior naval officer also underlined that the current military exercise will have the highest level of participation compared to any exercise in the eastern Mediterranean.

Bağcıoğlu also underlined that four frigates, one submarine, three mine hunting vessels and two fuel supply vessels, belonging to Turkish, Canadian, Greek, Spanish and Italian naval forces, will participate in the exercise.

Besides NATO countries’ forces, three frigates, two maritime patrol aircrafts, a special sea forces unit, 29 observer military officers and five headquarter officers, from 11 allied countries, will also participate, Bağcıoğlu added.