Turkey's EFES 2026 Exercise Closes With 50 Nations

Turkey's largest-ever combined joint live-fire exercise, EFES 2026, entered its closing days at the Doganbey range in Seferihisar, Izmir, on Tuesday, with 50 foreign nations gathered to observe Distinguished Observer Day on May 20 and the closing live-fire on May 21. The exercise has 10,388 personnel in the field, including 1,305 from allied and partner nations, with NATO members including the United States, Germany, France and the United Kingdom training alongside Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Malaysia, Japan, Sweden, Somalia and Rwanda. The roster includes two firsts: the Syrian army's first participation since the fall of the Baathist regime, and the first joint deployment of rival Libyan east and west forces.

Baykar's Bayraktar TB3 unmanned combat aerial vehicle flew sorties directly from TCG Anadolu, Turkey's light aircraft carrier, in what officials described as a milestone for the country's naval-aviation program; the heavy-payload Bayraktar Akinci supplied ISR throughout. Aselsan ran a live demonstration of Steel Dome -- Celik Kubbe -- the integrated air and missile defence architecture combining the long-range Siper platform with Hisar-A, Hisar-O and Sungur. STM demonstrated a KARGU loitering-munition swarm operated as 20 units by a single operator, following a January 2026 live-fire test STM described as a world first. A parallel Defence Industry Exhibition showcased the TAI Kaan fifth-generation fighter, the Hurjet jet trainer and the Anka-3 stealth UCAV, alongside Aselsan's indigenously developed Toygun and Karat electro-optical and infrared targeting systems. The exercise frames a defence industry that has moved from dependency to self-sufficiency within a decade, with momentum visible in the May 12 Karpat medium-tank programme between Turkish firm FNSS and Czech ammunition maker CSG, and ahead of the NATO Ankara Summit scheduled for July 7-8.

Turkish police announced on Tuesday the arrest of 110 suspected Daesh members in raids across Istanbul, Bursa and a third city. Investigators allege the suspects ran recruitment classes, trained minors, raised funds for imprisoned Daesh convicts and distributed propaganda and banned publications. The raids follow a similar operation the previous week that resulted in 324 arrests across 47 provinces, indicating that domestic counter-terror activity is intensifying rather than easing in the run-up to summer.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry on Monday rejected Greek commemorations marking May 19 as so-called "Pontus" genocide observances, calling the framing groundless and politically motivated and accusing Athens of covering up atrocities committed during the Greek occupation of western Anatolia after 1919. The statement landed on the anniversary of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's arrival in Samsun in 1919, the date Turkey marks as the beginning of its War of Independence -- a deliberate juxtaposition designed to assert national-historical priority.

At the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Aziz Alper Biten, the Turkish Health Ministry's Director-General for EU and Foreign Relations, announced that Tuerkiye had placed health on the official agenda of COP31 for the first time. Biten described the result as the product of "determined and persistent efforts" under Tuerkiye's presidency. The summit, themed "Dynamic and Resilient Health Systems," is scheduled for November in Tuerkiye, and the health-track inclusion gives Ankara both a substantive policy lane and a soft-power asset.

Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur Oezdemir Goektas announced that a new regulation restricting social media use for children under 15, modelled on Australia's recent ban, will be in force within six months. The cabinet has framed the move as a child-welfare measure but the rule will also test platform compliance with Turkish content controls.