Uzbekistan, Turkey to work on security

ANKARA-Hürriyet Daily News

Turkey and Uzbekistan have agreed to cooperate on security-related issues, a Turkish government agency announced Feb. 24 in a rare development between the two countries whose diplomatic relations have been chilly for more than a decade.

The announcement came from Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA), which hosted a delegation from Uzbekistan’s Interior Ministry between Feb. 19 and 26.

“An agreement for cooperation on security issues was reached between the two countries,” a written statement issued Feb. 24 by TİKA read.

Noting that Turkish security officials organized training courses for their Uzbek counterparts on four different issues in 2011, TİKA said Uzbekistan demanded similar training projects this year as well.
TİKA provides similar programs to other countries and especially focuses on increasing cooperation between police departments and creating an environment for future joint operations against international organized criminal networks. Uzbekistan cooled down its ties with Turkey in the early 2000s on concerns that Ankara would support Islamist groups in the Central Asian country.