COE-DAT Contributions to Counter Terrorism on the 70th Anniversary of Türkiye’s Inauguration to NATO

Abstract

After the Second World War, to secure peace in Europe and prevent further conflicts, North Atlantic Alliance Organization (NATO) was established. The Alliance’s founding treaty was first signed in Washington in 1949 by a dozen European and North American countries. It dedicates the Allies to a more peaceful, libertarian and non-conflict environment.2 NATO was largely dormant until the Korean War, especially in its military structure. During this war in 1952, Türkiye also became one of the new allies of NATO. Türkiye, which has been a member of NATO for 70 years, is the eighth largest contributor to the common fund, and has the second largest army in NATO. As a strong partner of NATO, Türkiye has always been on the front lines of the struggle for defence against terrorism. Centre of Excellence Defence Against Terrorism (COE-DAT), which was inaugurated in 2005, is one of the main contributors to this endeavour. From the moment of its foundation, COE-DAT, as an Education & Training (E&T) Facility, think-tank, and Department Head (DH) of Counter-Terrorism (CT) in NATO’s Global Programming, has published 28 activity reports, 21 newsletters, 16 journals, 28 books, and 14 research reports. COE-DAT has conducted 35 Mobile Education events in 21 different countries, and as of today has executed 133 courses. COE-DAT is additionally appointed as the DH for Alliance CT E&T by the Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT), and as such is tasked to coordinate, synchronize and de-conflict the growing quantity of NATO CT E&T events in order to provide training that is “efficient, effective and affordable” on behalf of Alliance members. COE-DAT continues today to present recommendations and suggestions for key decision makers at the strategic level.