Turkey, Syria conduct military drill

[Sanket]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...KFqUAD97QTIIO0
Turkey, Syria conduct military drill

By SELCAN HACAOGLU – 1 day ago

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The Turkish military said it launched a joint drill with Syrian soldiers on their shared border Monday in order to improve security. Israel, an ally of Turkey and a longtime foe of Syria, expressed concern.

Military teams from Turkey and Syria were scheduled to cross the border and visit outposts during the three-day exercises, the Turkish military said. It described the drill as the "first-ever" between the countries.

There was no mention of the joint operation in Syrian media. However, government newspapers reported Monday that Syrian Defense Minister Hassan Ali Turkmani had begun a five-day visit to Turkey for talks with Turkish officials and also to attend an international defense fair in Istanbul.

In Istanbul, senior defense officials from Turkey and Syria also signed an agreement for cooperation in the defense industry, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The agency quoted Turkish Maj. Gen. Beyazit Karatas as saying the deal would lay out the legal framework for future defense industry cooperation and increase contacts between the two countries' defense ministries.

Tensions between Turkey and Syria were once high because Abdullah Ocalan, leader of Turkey's rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, sheltered in Syria. Turkey massed troops on the Syrian border. Damascus then expelled Ocalan and he was captured in Kenya in 1999.

Antagonism between the neighbors had also mounted in the 1990s when Turkey developed military ties with Israel.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday that he viewed the exercise "as definitely a worrisome development."

"But I believe that the strategic relations between Israel and Turkey will prevail over Turkey's need to participate in such an exercise," Barak said.

Turkey has long been Israel's closest ally in the Muslim world, and hosted several rounds of indirect negotiations between Syria and Israel last year.

However, ties between Turkey and Israel deteriorated during the Gaza war, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reprimanded Israeli President Shimon Peres over civilian casualties in Gaza at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Turkish defense ties with Israel include training agreements and purchases from Israel worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

[Anatolia]

Experts say Syria deal not Israel threat

ANKARA - The recent Turkish-Syrian joint military exercise and bilateral defense cooperation agreement has raised concern in Israel, which has nurtured close military ties with Ankara for more than a decade while still at war with Syria over the Golan Heights.

Some experts believe Israel has a case. "Israel is justified in its concerns. I think this is a wrong strategic choice on the part of the Turkish government," said Professor Ifraim Inbar, director of Begin-Sadat, or BESA, Center for Strategic Studies, speaking to the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review yesterday.

Brig. Gen. Beyazıt Karataş, Turkish defense ministry deputy undersecretary for Technology and Coordination Air, said relations with Syria on every level are of great importance, speaking at Monday’s defense signing ceremony at the 9th International Defense Industry Fair in Istanbul.

"The deal we are signing will form the legal basis of defense cooperation between the defense ministries of the two countries," he said. Turkey and Israel have cooperated closely on military matters since the military training deal they signed in 1996.

Nihat Ali Özcan, a senior researcher at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey, or TEPAV, however, said the strategic consequences of the deal and the three-day military exercise that began on the Turkish-Syrian border Monday would be inconsequential.

"Turkey has similar deals with more than 60 countries. Besides, the exercise involved at most a total of 60 men from both sides. If it is held only at the platoon level as reported, then really it holds only a symbolic value against smugglers and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, operating along the border," he said. Teams from each country are to cross the border and visit an outpost as part of three-day exercises to improve security.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, however, had said the exercise is "definitely a worrisome" development. "We have nothing to add more than what the defense minister said," stated officials from the Israeli Embassy in Ankara speaking to the Daily News yesterday.

Hurriyet

[takeo]

Good relations between neighbouring countries are not "worrisome". Hopefully there will be a day that Israel and Syria, and Israel and Palestine, too will conduct a joint military exercise.

[Kenneth]

In preparation for war against whom, the puppy and unicorn vendors?