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CIAO DATE: 5/5/2007
Contributions of the Turkish Armed Forces to Middle East Peace Operations
Selahattin Iban
February 2007
Abstract
The general view held by Middle Eastern nations is that political sensitivities make it impossible for regional or neighboring countries to perform peacekeeping in the area. However, the example set by the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) in the past twelve years points to the fallacy of this view.
While fulfilling its responsibilities within the NATO alliance, the TAF continues to improve in both quality and quantity. As the world's eighth-largest military power -- as well as Europe's largest and NATO's second largest -- the TAF is the most powerful and effective military in the region. Since the end of the Cold War, the peacekeeping operations it has been actively involved in have helped it emerge as an effective force, not only in Turkey's neighborhood but also in areas as distant as East Timor and Sudan.