Military of 48 countries and police force of 13 trained in Turkey

Under the Guest Military Personnel (MAP) accord, Turkey has educated 19,399 foreign soldiers. In 2007 alone, 1,064 soldiers from 27 countries received training in Turkey. After attending classes at military academies, military high schools, military schools, the Military Medical Academy or noncommissioned officer’s higher vocational schools, the foreign soldiers receive training by the Turkish Armed Forces.

The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) also sent military personnel to different countries to educate military forces in their own countries. Azerbaijan and Georgia requested Turkey’s assistance with a complete restructuring of their military.

Turkey has offered most of its police training to the Turkic republics and countries in the Balkans. Turkey provided the Palestinian police force everything from education to uniforms, helping Palestine create its first official police force. The police forces of Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iraq also received training from Turkish officials. [More]

Russia no longer Georgia's biggest trade partner, statistics show

Trade between Georgia and Russia fell 4.4 percent to $322m in the first quarter of 2007, compared to the same period a year earlier, the Georgian State Statistics Department reported, indicating that this was the first time that Russia has ceded its leading position in Georgia's foreign trade to Turkey, whose contribution stood at $387m in Q1 2007.

Georgia's trade with the CIS has also dropped. Where in January-June 2006, the CIS's share of Georgia's overall foreign trade stood at 41 percent, it has shrunk to 37 percent this year . At the same time, Georgia's trade with Ukraine has surged 41 percent to $263m, which put the republic at 3rd place among Georgia's foreign trade partners. [More]