Türkiye's specially trained dog named Nobel secured first place in a three-day international competition featuring 10 sniffer dogs from different countries in the capital Ankara Thursday.
The event was organized to develop national and international cooperation in combating smuggling.
The International Narcotic Detector Dogs Championship was organized by the Ministry of Commerce and the General Directorate of Customs Enforcement to develop national and international cooperation in the fight against smuggling and to share knowledge and experience at the Ministry of Commerce Dog Training Center.
Participating countries included Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Uzbekistan and the host country, Türkiye. The dogs taking part in the competition exhibited their skills in four different stages including "box search," "room search," "vehicle search" and "obedience" level. With 387.3 points, Türkiye embraced the winning trophy followed by Hungary with 370.2 points and Moldova with 327.5 points.
Rıza Tuna Turagay, deputy minister of commerce, said: "With the help of these sniffer dogs, last year, 14.2 tons of drugs were seized. Our dog training center trains local and foreign dog breeds in various fields such as narcotics, explosives-weapons-ammunition, tea and tobacco, humans, cash and security, focusing on advancing technology in dog training. At the moment we have 224 dogs in 55 customs administrations."
Emphasizing the importance of this competition, Turagay said: "We will continue to hold these championships as a tradition and will encourage more participation to ensure cooperation between the winning countries and the institutions in the fight against smuggling."
Viktor Matis, the ambassador of Hungary to Ankara, expressed gratitude to the Turkish people, saying: "Our brothers have hosted us very well. We feel honored to be here. He added that there are Turkish forces mobilized at the borders with Serbia, Hungary and Romania. Perhaps sending sniffer dogs as well would be helpful.