| Turkey's General Staff plans to reform the structure of the military's ground forces. Officials said the restructuring is based on lessons from the U.S.-led war in Iraq. They said the effort would seek to form smaller and more mobile units that are interoperable with other services. Turkey has one of the largest militaries in the Middle East with 470,000 soldiers. The Land Forces Command is the largest unit with more than 300,000 troops. Officials said the reforms were part of plans to reduce the size of Turkey's military. Under the plans announced in August, Turkey would eliminate thousands of command and staff positions and merge units, particularly in the Land Forces Command. |