History
Main article: Military history of Turkey
See also: Military of the Ottoman Empire
[edit] Foundation of the Republic of Turkey
Turkish Army Seal
The Turkish Army has its foundations in remnant Ottoman forces inherited after the fall of the
Ottoman Empire at the end of
World War I. The rise of Turkish nationalism in
Anatolia, under the leadership of
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, led eventually to victory in the
Turkish War of Independence, and subsequently to the founding of the
Republic of Turkey, when these remnant forces were reorganized into the modern Turkish Army.
[3]
[edit] Cold War Era
The Turkish Army participated in the
Korean War as a member state of the
United Nations, suffering 731 deaths in combat out of the 5000 soldiers of the Turkish Brigade there, which fought at Kunuri and Kumyangjangni and is credited with saving the U.S.
2nd Infantry Division from encirclement.
[4]
Following its membership of
NATO on
February 18,
1952, the
Republic of Turkey initiated a comprehensive modernization program for its Armed Forces.
In July 1974, the Turkish Armed Forces intervened against a coup in
Cyprus, organized by
EOKA-B and led by
Nikos Sampson who ousted the democratically elected Cypriot President
Archbishop Makarios III in order to establish
Enosis (Union) between Greece and Cyprus. The coup was backed by the
Greek military junta in Athens.
Turkish troops during a NATO exercise
The
military intervention in Cyprus can be divided into two distinct Turkish offensives, the first being
Attila 1, which commenced in the early hours of
July 20, 1974, with an amphibious landing force forming a beachhead at
Kyrenia's Five Mile Beach (Pentemilli). This landing initially comprised only infantry troops, but was supported by rolling air and naval artillery attacks, and met with limited resistance from the
Cyprus National Guard, which was in disarray as a result of the
July 15, 1974 coup. The majority of fighting ceased on the 23rd of July, though sporadic clashes continued after this date until the 14th of August.
[5] Attila 1 successfully achieved its objective of forming a bridgehead with the
Turkish Cypriot enclave of Agyrta-Nicosia.
[6]
The second Turkish offensive occurred on August 14, 1974, as Greek and Turkish Cypriot representatives met in
Geneva to discuss the situation on the island. Despite a UN ceasefire in place (several had already been disregarded)
[7], the Turkish Army, massively reinforced from weeks of build-up, launched an all out surprise attack on ill-prepared Greek Cypriot and Greek units. With little answer to the masses of armour, mechanised units, artillery and air support that the Turks could bring to bear, virtually all
Greek Cypriot defences collapsed in a matter of days, and by August 16, 1974, Turkish forces, spearheaded by the 28th and 39th Infantry Divisions, had extended to capture some 37% of the island, including the towns of
Famagusta,
Varosha and
Morphou.
[8]
The conflict in Cyprus resulted in the de-facto division of the island between the
Turkish Cypriot controlled north and the
Greek Cypriot controlled south. Turkey still maintains troops in Cyprus, since a political solution could not yet be achieved and since many members of the Turkish Cypriot community fear a return to the intercommunal violence which occurred between 1963 and 1974.
[9]
Turkish troops during a NATO exercise
According to official British military reports in 1974, the Turkish Army included the First Army (II, III, V, and XV Corps), Second Army (IV, VI, and VII Corps) and Third Army (VIII, IX, and XI Corps). There were also three Interior Zones with three recruit training divisions and four recruit training brigades.
[10] For a long period, these formations were grouped under the
NATO headquarters LANDSOUTHEAST at
Izmir, lead by a Turkish Army four-star General. After the fall of the Soviet Union the headquarters became Joint Command Southeast for a period, before becoming Allied Air Component Command Izmir in 2004.
[11]
Until the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1990, the Army had a static defense mission of countering any possible attack on Thrace by Soviet and Warsaw Pact forces and any attack by the Soviet
Transcaucasus Military District on the Caucasus frontier. The
Third Army was responsible for holding the Caucasus line with about one third of the Army's total strength of one armoured, two mechanised, and fourteen infantry divisions (1986 data).
[12] When the General Staff attempted to shift 120,000 troops to the frontier with Iraq in 1990, they discovered, the writers of the U.S.
Library of Congress Country Studies said, that there were serious deficiencies in the Army's ability to respond to crises that could erupt suddenly in distant regions.
[13] The Army was even less prepared for a situation requiring the deployment and logistical support of forces in operations beyond Turkey's borders.
[edit] Modernization
See also: Modern equipment and uniform of the Turkish Army
The Turkish-built
T-155 Fırtına 155mm
self-propelled howitzer of the Turkish Army
Turkish soldiers in front of an
FNSS Pars 8x8
armoured vehicle, produced by
FNSS of Turkey
Otokar Yavuz 8x8
armoured vehicle of the Turkish Army, produced by
Otokar of Turkey
Otokar Cobra 4x4
armoured vehicle of the Turkish Army, produced by
Otokar of Turkey
Towards the end of the 1980s, a restructuring and modernization process has been initiated by the Turkish Armed Forces, which still continues today. The final goal of
Turkey is to produce indigenous military equipment and to become increasingly self-sufficient in terms of military technologies.
[14] Today, the Turkish Army officially claims it can deploy an Army Corps of 50,000 men to conduct
joint operations at short notice, and also conduct air assault operations with a lift capability of up to 6 battalions at a time, day and night.
[15]
In late 2002 the III Corps, with its headquarters near Istanbul, was certified as one of the six
NATO High Readiness Force-Land (HRF-L) headquarters and gained the additional title of the Rapidly Deployable Turkish Corps (RDTC). A year later,
Jane's Defense Weekly reported on 9 July 2003 that as part of force restructuring, its four existing armies would be reorganized into a Western Army, in Istanbul, and the Eastern Army would replace 2nd Army in Malatya.
[16] This plan does not appear to have been carried out.
The Army announced plans in mid 2004 to abolish four brigades across Turkey in a move towards making a reality of its long-delayed plan to make units smaller, lighter and more mobile.
[17] The arms and equipment of the brigades closed will be kept in depots. The plan involves the disbandment of:
- The 33rd Mechanized Brigade in Kırklareli on the north-west border with Greece and Bulgaria
- The 7th Mechanized Brigade in Kars/Kağızman near the eastern border with Armenia
- The 10th Infantry Brigade in Van/Erciş on the eastern border with Iran
- The 9th Armored Brigade in Çankırı in central Anatolia
The then-Army Commander said of further modernization efforts in 2006:
Gen. Büyükanıt, who sent crucial messages regarding the future of the Land Forces, said that the country's own instabilities should also be taken into consideration. He reported that the land forces will shrink considerably within the next eight years. But he said that despite this process, the force's capacities will be increased. "The Land Forces aim at being equipped with new opportunities and capabilities in order to carry out its duty in full strength against a large variety of threats, varying from classical threats to asymmetrical ones. "The targets for our land forces are to be realized through 'Forces 2014' project. This project aims to shrink the forces without undermining its combat capabilities. On the contrary, under the plan the efficiency of the force will increase. "Within this period of time the Land Forces will gradually decrease by 20 to 30 percent in terms of number of personnel and forces formations. It will be equipped with modern arms and war devices as the distinct features of this new formation. Thus the battle capability will be given to high-ranking brigades. Moreover with the Combat Zone Management System, the land tactical map will be numerically formed in real-time or close to real-time and a constant tracking will be provided," said Büyükanıt. (The New Anatolian, Evren Değer, 10 August 2006)
[18]
At present, the primary
main battle tanks of the Turkish Army are the
Leopard 2A4 and the
M60T. There are also around 400
Leopard 1 and 750
M60 Patton variants in service (excluding the M60T which were upgraded with the 120mm
MG253 guns), but the Turkish Army retains a large number of older vehicles. More than 2,800
M48 Pattons are still in service (upgraded with the 105mm
M68 guns) though only around 1,300 of these are stored as reserve MBTs,
[19] while the rest are mostly transformed into other types of military vehicles (such as cranes, MBT recovery vehicles and logistical support vehicles) or used as spare parts hulks. Turkey plans to build a total of 1,000 new MBTs with the
MİTÜP Turkish National Tank Project.
[20]
[edit] Structure of the Turkish Army
The Turkish Army is organised into the following commands:
[21]
- Land Forces Command (Turkish: Kara Kuvvetleri Komutanlığı (KKK))
[edit] List of Turkish Army Units
The commands listed above consist of the following units:
[24]
- 9 Army Corps. The corps includes the II Corps at Gelibolu, III Corps at Şişli in Istanbul (the NATO Rapid Deployment Corps - Turkey), IV Corps at Mamak, V Corps at Çorlu, VII Corps at Diyarbakır, VIII Corps at Elazığ, IX Corps at Erzurum, and XI Corps in Northern Cyprus.[25] The status of the XV Corps in the First Army is unclear, as is the VI Corps that used to be at Adana within the Second Army.
- 1 Infantry Division (may be the 3rd Infantry Division at Yüksekova?)[26]
- 2 Mechanized Infantry Divisions
- 1 Armored Division
- 1 Training Division
- 11 Infantry / Motorized Infantry Brigades
- 16 Mechanized Infantry Brigades (includes the 4th Mechanized Brigade, Keşan, with the II Corps, and the 70th Mechanized Brigade, Mardin,[27] possibly attached to the VII Corps)
- 9 Armored Brigades
- 5 Para-Commando Brigades (includes 1st Commando Brigade, Kayseri, 2nd Commando Brigade, Bolu, and 3rd Commando Brigade, Midyat)
- 1 Army Aviation Brigade
- 2 Artillery Brigades
- 5 Training Brigades
- 1 Humanitarian Aid Brigade
The
IISS Military Balance 2008 lists the Turkish Land Forces with four Army HQ, 10 corps HQ, 17 armoured brigades, 15 mechanised infantry brigades, two infantry divisions, 11 infantry brigades, 1 Special Force command HQ, five commando brigades, one combat helicopter battalion, four aviation regiments, three aviation battalions (totalling 1 tspt and 2 trng battalions), and four training/artillery brigades.
[28]
The army's 14 armoured brigades are the most powerful brigades in the restructured organisation; each includes two armoured, two mechanised infantry and two self-propelled artillery battalions.
[29] The 17 mechanised brigades each have two armoured, two mechanised and one artillery battalion. The army's nine infantry brigades each have four infantry battalions and one artillery battalion, while the four commando brigades have three commando battalions.
[edit] Branch Insignia
COMBATANT
- General Staff
- Infantry
- Cavalry
- Armoury
- Land Aviation
BATTLE SUPPORTING
- Artillery
- Bulwark
- Air Defence
- Correspondence
- Intelligence
BATTLE SUPPORTING & SERVICE
- Communications
- Ordnance
- Supplies
- Personnel
- Cartography
- Transportation
- Finance
- Instructor
- Judge
- Military Band
- Medical, Dental and Pharmaceutical Corps
- Veterinary Corps
- Engineer, Chemist and Technician Corps
Source :
http://www.kkk.tsk.mil.tr/GenelKonular/RutbeIsaretler/SinifYaka/
[edit] References
- <LI id=cite_note-0>^ NATO official website: "My country & NATO: Turkey" <LI id=cite_note-1>^ The Economist: "Turkey, America and Europe: Who is losing Turkey?" <LI id=cite_note-2>^ Some details on commanders and force structure during this period can be found here <LI id=cite_note-3>^ www.korean-war.com/turkey.html <LI id=cite_note-4>^ Vlassis, 2004. All references for this paragraph and the one below are at Military operations during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. <LI id=cite_note-5>^ Drousiotis, 2004. <LI id=cite_note-6>^ Drousiotis, 2004. <LI id=cite_note-7>^ Karkaletsis, 2005; Efthyvolou 2004. <LI id=cite_note-8>^ Intercommunal Violence and Eric Solsten, ed. Cyprus: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1991. <LI id=cite_note-9>^ British military attache's reports 1974, accessed via Public Records Office, Kew <LI id=cite_note-10>^ http://www.afsouth.nato.int/factsheets/JCSE.htm and http://www.afsouth.nato.int/JFCN_Factsheets/CC_Air_Izmir.htm <LI id=cite_note-11>^ John Keegan & Andrew Wheatcroft, Zones of Conflict: An Atlas of Future Wars, Jonathan Cape, p.20-21 <LI id=cite_note-12>^ Library of Congress Country Studies:Turkey, Armed Forces - Army, January 1995 <LI id=cite_note-13>^ See also Elliot Hen-Tov, The Political Economy of Turkish Military Modernization, MERIA <LI id=cite_note-14>^ Capabilities of the Turkish Armed Forces <LI id=cite_note-15>^ Lale Sarıibrahimoğlu, ‘Turkey cuts forces strength’, Jane’s Defense Weekly, 9 July 2003, p.13 <LI id=cite_note-16>^ Reuters, ‘Turkey to Scrap four army brigades’, July 23, 2004, and Jane’s World Armies <LI id=cite_note-17>^ INFO-TURK N°336 <LI id=cite_note-18>^ Military Balance 2008, p.154 <LI id=cite_note-19>^ Turkish MBT Project <LI id=cite_note-20>^ Force Structure <LI id=cite_note-21>^ Forum discussion of current structure, drawn from S&H Magazine <LI id=cite_note-22>^ Cyprus ORBATS - Armchair General Forums <LI id=cite_note-23>^ Force Structure <LI id=cite_note-24>^ Turkish Order of Battle (partial) in 1996 and British Military Attache's Annual Report on the Turkish Army, Annex A to DA/48, dated 30 March 1974, FCO 9/2127, via Public Records Office, Kew. <LI id=cite_note-25>^ Turkish Daily News, President calls for national unity, Thursday, September 13, 2007 <LI id=cite_note-26>^ Unification of Culture and Tourism Ministries constitutional One soldier killed, three injured in terrorist attack Minister Cicek says Turkey's credi - Turkish Daily News Oct 17, 2003 <LI id=cite_note-27>^ IISS Military Balance 2008, p.154
- ^ Library of Congress Country Studies:Turkey, Armed Forces - Army, January 1995