IZMIR \u2014 In a pair of milestones that underscore Ankara\u2019s growing ambitions as a regional military player, Libya and Syria have deployed forces to Turkey\u2019s EFES-2026 Combined Joint Live-Fire Field Exercise \u2014 the first time either country has participated in a military exercise on foreign soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The live-fire phase of EFES-2026 ran through May 21 along the Aegean coast near \u0130zmir, making it one of Turkey\u2019s largest combined and joint exercises to date. Conducted under the Aegean Army Command, the drill spanned two phases \u2014 a computer-assisted command post phase in April and the live-fire field phase \u2014 drawing over 10,000 personnel from 50 nations to the \u0130zmir Gulf and Do\u011fanbey training ranges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Libyan participation carries particular symbolic weight. A total of 502 Libyan troops \u2014 331 from the country\u2019s eastern forces and 171 from the west \u2014 are training side by side under a single Libyan flag. It is the first time the two rival factions have jointly deployed abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Turkish defense officials described the event as a concrete step toward Ankara\u2019s long-stated \u201cOne Libya, One Army\u201d goal. Libyan personnel have received training in amphibious operations, special forces tactics, combat diving, mine and IED awareness, and combat search and rescue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Besides the land forces, the Libyan Combattante II G class patrol craft Shafak also participated in the naval phase of the exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Syria\u2019s participation is smaller but arguably more important diplomatically. Approximately 50 Syrian military personnel took part, making the newly reconstituted Syrian army\u2019s first-ever exercise outside Syrian territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ankara framed both nations\u2019 attendance as part of its broader military-restructuring and advisory programs in each country, with officials saying that training and advisory cooperation with both nations will continue and expand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ankara framed both nations\u2019 attendance as part of its broader military-restructuring and advisory programs in each country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":120541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":46,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[160,46,11,36,26],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3352],"class_list":["post-72455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-europe","category-global","category-newsletters","category-training-sim"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"ETS3IB2K4VARJML552WRCH6MNE","arc_canonical_url":"\/global\/europe\/2026\/05\/22\/libya-and-syria-join-turkeys-flagship-military-exercise-in-historic-firsts\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n