AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Four NATO allies mounted a big naval exercise off the Turkish coast on May 26 simulating the capture of imaginary weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Warships belonging to the United States, Turkey, France and Portugal, backed by helicopters and warplanes, identified, isolated and seized a civilian vessel carrying an imaginary cargo that could be used in the making of a nuclear weapon.
“This is the first time Turkey has hosted such an exercise deploying naval, land and air forces,” Air Commodore Tuncay Erilmez told reporters attending the “Anatolia Sun 2006” maneuvers in the east Mediterranean.
“We never want to deal with such a situation but this exercise will help ensure we are ready if there ever is one,” he said, noting that WMD proliferation has become a global worry.
Turkish officials said the exercise was not aimed against anybody, though some media have speculated that it is meant to discourage Iran, which is currently locked in a diplomatic battle with the West over its nuclear program.
The United States and its allies suspect Iran of trying to build a nuclear bomb, though Tehran insists its program is aimed at producing peaceful atomic energy. Iran has a land border with Turkey.
During the exercise, the allies try to make contact with the civilian vessel without success. A dead body is then thrown into the sea. A suspicious helicopter draws near to the boat but is scared off by a Turkish naval helicopter.
Sailors finally manage to board the vessel, discover its dangerous cargo and take it ashore where teams of experts in special masks and costumes collect it and take it away for proper study and decontamination.
“The aim of the
