UPDATE - Efes-2024 drill based on peace support operation, no country targeted: Turkish president

UPDATES WITH MORE REMARKS FROM PRESIDENT, EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Anadolu staff

ISTANBUL (AA) - Türkiye’s president said on Thursday that the Turkish military's ongoing Efes-2024 drill does not target any country and is based on a peace support operation.

"No country is targeted in the Efes-2024 exercise. Our exercise is carried out with a generic scenario based on a peace support operation," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an address to the military during the exercise in western Izmir province.

"We have the opportunity to use the new domestic systems that have entered the inventory during the Efes-2024 exercise," he added, further stating that 33 new systems will be tested for the first time.

The president also highlighted Türkiye's growing defense industry.

"Last year, we reached $5.5 billion in defense exports with 230 types of products sent to 185 countries and we signed new contracts worth $10.24 billion," he said.

Erdogan also emphasized that Türkiye is conducting intense diplomacy.

"We have recently taken a number of significant steps to expand our circle of friends. Hopefully, we will continue our journey with new initiatives," Erdogan added.

"We hold no animosity or prejudice against any country. We have no interest in anyone's land or sovereign rights," he said.

The president also touched upon the presence of the PKK terrorist group in the north of Syria and Iraq.

"Türkiye will never allow the (PKK) separatist organization to establish a terrorist state in the north of Syria and Iraq, just beyond its southern borders," he said.

Erdogan further added that Ankara "closely monitors" PKK's "aggressive actions against the territorial integrity of Türkiye and Syria under the pretext of a referendum."

The president also mentioned Israel's ongoing aggression in Gaza, blasting the embattled Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu's government for an attack on a refugee camp last Sunday in Rafah that killed at least 45 people, mostly women and children.

"It was the end of humanity, there is no justification for such brutality," he said regarding the attack.

Erdogan also added that "killing 36,000 people, injuring over 80,000 innocent civilians, and shelling civilians queuing for food is not war, it is genocide."