Turkish Coast Guard delegation visits Georgia

A Turkish Coast Guard delegation is paying a 4-day official visit to Georgia. The visit is being held under the terms of the “agreement between the Government of Georgia and the Government of the Republic of Turkey on the cooperation of their competent authorities responsible for their maritime areas in the Black Sea” and the Action Plan for 2009 of the two agencies, the Press Service of the Georgian Border Police has reported.

On March 24 representatives of the Georgian Border Police Department and the Coast Guard Commission of the Republic of Turkey met in Hotel Tori in Tbilisi. Rear Admiral Atilla Kezek, Commandant of the Turkish Coast Guard, Captain Cenk Unal, General Secretary of the Turkish Coast Guard, Commander Necdet Doluel, Head of the Strategy and Treaties Division, Lt. Commander Kadir Karakaya, Head of the Search and Rescue Centre attended from Turkey, alongside Major-General Zaza Gogava, Head of the Border Police of Georgia, Captain Besik Shengelia, Deputy Head of the Border Police of Georgia, the Director of the Coast Guard Department and other Border Police Officials.

The parties summed up the results of activities undertaken during the last year, discussed the reforms carried out in the Coast Guard Department and talked about safe alternative channels of communication through which to exchange information. Rear Admiral Atilla Kezek and Major-General Zaza Gogava signed a protocol summing up the progress made at the meeting.

As part of the visit Turkish officials laid a wreath at the memorial to those who fell for the territorial integrity of Georgia. According to the Press Service of the Georgian Border Police, on March 25 the Turkish delegation left for Poti to visit the Coast Guard base there. The delegation will leave Georgia on March 26.