Turkey gears up military might to host live-fire war games
The Ephesus joint combined military exercise — the Turkish military’s most prominent annual display — will reveal much about the operational effectiveness of the country's armed forces in the aftermath of the July 2016 coup attempt.
Turkey has something to prove.
The Ephesus 2018 Joint Combined Live Fire event, set for May 7-11 in Izmir, will be Turkey's first high-profile conventional international exercise since the July 2016 attempted coup. The display should reveal important data on the operational effectiveness and conventional capabilities of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK).
The Turkish general staff describes the objective of the exercise as developing and maintaining the combat readiness of the joint headquarters and field units together with elements of the invited countries. No doubt the exercise will demonstrate the TSK's status in the aftermath of the coup attempt — hence the exceptional interest shown by foreign mission chiefs, military attaches and international media.
The exercise calls for the cooperation of numerous entities. In addition to TSK elements, Turkey’s public bodies, such as emergency relief services, the postal department, the Ministry of Health, local municipalities and Turkey’s official media, as well as civilian companies that specialize in telecommunications, cybersecurity and information technology will also take part in the exercises. The TSK seriously felt the lack of civilian-military integration during its Operation Euphrates Shield (August 2016-March 2017) and Operation Olive Branch (January-March 2018), and this time it will coordinate with the civilian sector to improve the situation.
