Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Aug 24 2009

Armenia, Azerbaijan Turkey to participate in joint NATO exercise

Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey will be among participants of a joint
exercise to be held by NATO in Kazakhstan in September, according to
an announcement released by the Prime Ministry General Directorate for
Emergency Management.

NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Center (EADRCC) is
organizing a Consequence Management Field Exercise in cooperation with
Kazakhstan, the host nation, which will be conducted on Sept. 5-11.

The exercise `ZHETYSU 2009′ is in accordance with the Civil Emergency
Planning Exercise Policy and the Exercise Program for 2009-2013. It is
a contribution by Kazakhstan to the Partnership for Peace (PfP)
program. It will be the ninth EADRCC field exercise and the first
EADRCC exercise hosted by Kazakhstan.

`The Prime Ministry General Directorate for Emergency Management,
which is the EADRCC’s contact point in our country, is also assuming
coordination of all activities concerning the exercise. In addition to
our country, the United States, Germany, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Armenian, Finland, Britain, Spain, Sweden,
Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan and Ukraine will participate in the exercise,’ the
announcement said.

For more than one-and-a-half years, Turkey and Armenia have been
holding closed-door talks, mediated by Switzerland, to restore their
relations. But the process stalled after Ankara said progress in
normalization efforts was linked with progress in Armenia’s
Nagorno-Karabakh dispute. Armenia rejects any link between the two
issues.

24 August 2009, Monday
TODAY’S ZAMAN ANKARA