President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan flew into the western city of Izmir on Thursday for the Distinguished Observer Day of Efes 2026, an international exercise where the Turkish Armed Forces showcased its abilities and the country’s defense industry demonstrated its latest locally made products.
In a speech there, Erdoğan praised the Turkish army as “an army of peace which won’t harm anyone but enemies.” He noted that Türkiye was one of the actors of a new era where new alliances are being shaped.
The exercise, named after the ancient city of Ephesus located in present-day Izmir, began on April 20 in the Doğanbey region of the city’s Seferihisar district, on the coast of the Aegean Sea, which was once a hotbed of tensions between Türkiye and Greece. It brought together 50 nations, from fellow members of NATO to Libya and Syria, the latter of which participated in the first multinational exercise since the fall of the Assad regime in 2024. It is the largest combined joint live-fire exercise of the country. Beyond it, it was an opportunity to display Türkiye’s local defense industry. The products of the booming industry, widely known across the world for its unmanned aerial vehicles, were on display in an exhibition ground next to the exercise venue. Autonomous drone swarms and carrier-launched unmanned combat vehicles were highlights of the exhibition, where officers of the countries joining the exercise admired Türkiye’s homegrown innovations.
