The Turkish army is set to flex its muscles again in the Aegean Sea, this time in the form of a joint search and rescue exercise. The Anatolian Star 2025 exercise opened in the western province of Izmir on Sunday with a news briefing. A four-day exercise will be held in international waters of the Aegean Sea and at Dumanlı, a mountain in the coastal province’s Menemen district.
Col. Özgür Umut Şenduran, a spokesperson for the Aegean Army Command of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), informed the press about the exercise, whose naval chapter will begin on Monday. Şenduran said the exercise’s exact location at sea may vary based on weather, adding that it will be held either Iskiri (Skyros) and Ipsala islands or Sakız (Chios) and Midilli (Lesbos) islands. On the first day, military units will act in a scenario involving evacuation from a sinking, burning commercial vessel after a distress call. On June 3, the exercise will switch to the land where troops will perform a search and rescue drill for a group of mountaineers lost during ascent. Search and rescue aircraft, helicopters, a transportation plane, a frigate, Coast Guard Command boats and two rescue vessels will participate in the exercise, which will be observed by representatives from 11 countries.
The Aegean Sea is a contested venue for Türkiye and Greece over a maritime border dispute and territorial rights of islands currently under Greek jurisdiction. In the past, Turkish and Greek fighter jets often conflicted during patrol flights above the Aegean Sea and occasionally had dogfights. A rapprochement process between the two countries that gained momentum in the past couple of years largely deflected tensions, though Ankara and Athens still trade barbs on longstanding issues.
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