Turkish Chief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Ozkok urged NATO members and partner nations to deepen cooperation at the 7th Silk Road Generals-Admirals Seminar, held in Ankara in July 2006. He argued that no single country can manage today's security environment alone and that collective action is the only path to meaningful international stability.
The seminar focused on the future of NATO alongside its partnership frameworks: Partnership for Peace, the Mediterranean Dialogue, and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative. Ozkok described these programs as complementary, built around three shared elements: conflict prevention through cooperation, political and military reform, and training support for partner forces.
Ozkok noted that NATO has shifted over the past two decades from a static defensive alliance into a more flexible organization capable of responding to crises beyond its traditional borders. Operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan, he said, illustrated how heavily NATO depends on partner contributions in real-world missions.
He also highlighted Türkiye's long record of participation in peace support operations dating to the Korean War, as well as the training and interoperability assistance Türkiye has extended to partner militaries. Ozkok grounded his remarks in the Atatürk principle of "peace at home, peace in the world" as the foundation of Türkiye's foreign policy approach.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in July 2006, in its own words.