The 2004 Istanbul summit - Some Important, but relatively unknown/unreported developments in Turkey

The 2004 Istanbul summit was held in Istanbul, Turkey from June 28 to June 29. It was the 17th NATO summit in which NATO's Heads of State and Governments met to make formal decisions about security topics. In general, the summit is seen as a continuation of the transformation process that begun in the 2002 Prague summit, which hoped to create a shift from a Cold War alliance against Soviet aggression to a 21st century coalition against new and out-of-area security threats. The summit consisted of four meetings. It was really hard to get any news from the meetings, because of all the hoopla surrounding the US Government/Iraqi Government transfer of sovereignty!

NATO members welcomed seven new alliance members during the North Atlantic Council meeting, decided to expand the alliance's presence in the War in Afghanistan and to end its presence in Bosnia, agreed to assist Iraq with training, launched a new partnership initiative and adopted measures to improve NATO’s operational capabilities. The NATO-Russia Council meeting was mostly noted by the absence of both Russian president Vladimir Putin and of any progress concerning the ratification of the adapted CFE treaty or the withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia and Moldova. NATO leaders further welcomed progress made by Ukraine towards membership in the NATO-Ukraine Commission meeting and discussed some general and mostly symbolic topics with its non-NATO counterparts during the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council meeting.

Due to Turkish government fears of a terrorist attack, security measures during the summit were tight. Demonstrators from around the world gathered to protest against NATO or the American foreign policy under the George W. Bush Administration, while the summit itself was blown off the front pages of the world press by the unexpected transfer of Iraqi sovereignty, coinciding with the first day of the NATO summit on June 28.

I wonder why the two important events were co-scheduled? Or did it just work out that way?