The selected participants will eventually be airlifted to Turkey for a more advanced military specific training.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) Yankuba Drammeh, said the training is designed exclusively to serve as a pace setter in preparing for deployment in the Republic of Turkey as they will be introduced with the essence and importance of the Turkish language.
He added that the training denotes what subsequent action will come afterwards as each of them has a critical assignment on how to perform, assimilate the instructions and also how they will acquaint themselves.
According to CDS, the participants will determine their cause of action, noting that Turkish language is a requirement.
Drammeh further challenged all the participants to give their best in terms of participation; in terms of strict adherence to set rules and regulations and most importantly to be able to transcend what they will be taught to the next level.
He added thatwould determine whether or not they could be part of Gamcoy 2.
“You cannot partake in those trainings if you do not have what it takes to effectively and efficiently partake in a training mode that is designed exclusively to prepare for a very noble assignment in a given peace operations,” he explained.
According to him, in 2014, GAF constituted part of the Force Contingent that was sent to Darfur and during the period under review, they represented The Gambia in an enviable track performance in the UN missions, Darfur, Liberia, Sierra Leone and others.
He continued that during those missions, GAF served with distinction and with commendable performance that they attributed to a larger extent by the constructive training they received both individually and collectively by the GAF Training School.
The Turkish ambassador to The Gambia,TolgaBermek, in his statement, said Gambia and Turkey have enjoyed excellent relations since the independence of The Gambia in 1965, which gears to develop in economic, commercial and as well as to bind the two countries stronger.
“Our relation in military and security field is one of the main pillars of our relations and as a result, we have strong cooperation in those areas since the establishment of the Turkish Training Team for The Gambia Military in February 1991,” he recalled.
