U.S. 6th Fleet Commander Visits Naval Partners in Turkey

Vice Adm. Lisa Franchetti, commander, U.S. 6th Fleet, traveled to Ankara and Gölcük, Turkey March 4-6, 2019 to meet with the Deputy Chief of the Turkish General Staff Lt. Gen. Metin Gürak, Commander of the Turkish Fleet Vice Adm. Ercüment Tatlioglu, and other key Turkish Navy leadership to discuss opportunities for U.S. and Turkish Navy cooperation to ensure regional stability and security through combined maritime exercises and operations.

“The Turkish Navy is a strong partner of the U.S. Navy, and they also bring significant capability to the NATO Alliance, operating across the full spectrum of Maritime Warfare,” said Franchetti. “The success of our exercises and operations demonstrates our shared commitment to regional stability and maritime security.”

While in Ankara, Franchetti met with the embassy’s U.S. Marine Corps Security Detachment and laid a wreath at Anitkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder and first President of the Republic of Turkey.

U.S. and Turkish maritime forces have a long history of cooperation in multinational exercises such as BALTOPS and Sea Breeze, as well as combined operations in the Standing NATO Maritime Groups and Combined Task Force 151.

Additionally, U.S., Alliance, and partner forces regularly participate in Turkish-hosted exercises such as Mavi Balina and Dogu Akdeniz, anti-submarine warfare exercises in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. These exercises improve combined warfighting capability, increase operational capacity, and strengthen relationships among exercise participants.

Turkey also regularly provides expanded logistics support to U.S. assets working in the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean.

“Turkish logistics support, particularly from their replenishment assets in the Black Sea, is invaluable,” Franchetti added. “They directly enhance and enable our ability to operate forward in this critical region. I look forward to operating alongside them in the years ahead.”

U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allied, and interagency partners, in order to advance U.S. national interests and security and stability in Europe and Africa.