Turkish Army

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Turkish Army Türk Kara Kuvvetleri

Components Turkish Army Structure List of current units Administration İlker Başbuğ Overseas Deployments Forces in Cyprus Equipment Modern equipment History History Timeline Personnel Officer rank insignia Other ranks insignia

Foundation:B.C.209 The Turkish Army (Turkish: Türk Kara Kuvvetleri) is a branch of the Turkish Armed Forces. It is one of the largest standing armies in the world and the second largest army of NATO.^[1][2]

While Turkish historians claim historical antecedents stretching back for millennia, the modern history of the Army began with its formation after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Significant events since the foundation of the Army include combat in the Korean War and in the Cyprus Dispute, and acting as a NATO bulwark along Cold War frontiers through 1991.

The Army holds the pre-eminent place within the Armed Forces, and it is customary for the Chief of the Turkish General Staff to have been Army commander prior to his appointment as Turkey's senior ranking officer. The current Army commander is General İlker Başbuğ.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Foundation of the Republic of Turkey 1.2 Cold War Era 1.3 Modernization 2 Structure of the Turkish Army 3 List of Turkish Army Units 4 Branch Insignia 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

Main article: Military history of Turkey

See also: Military of the Ottoman Empire

[edit] Foundation of the Republic of Turkey

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.

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]

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

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))
  • 1st Army Command - Istanbul
  • 2nd Army Command - Malatya
  • 3rd Army Command - Erzincan
  • Aegean Army Command - İzmir (also called the 4th Army)
    • Artillery Brigade (Izmir), Infantry Brigade (Edremit), Motorised Infantry Brigade (Denizli), Infantry Training Brigade (Antalya), Infantry Training Brigade (Manisa).^[22]
  • Cyprus Turkish Forces Command - Girne, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
    • 28th and 39th Divisions, 14th Armoured Brigade^[23]
  • Training and Doctrine Command
  • Logistics Command
  • Army Aviation Command

[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

• Articles on the History of Ottoman Turkish Army
• Turkish Land Forces
• Maps of current dispositions
• Turkish Army circa World War I
• Turkish divisions World War I
• This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook (2004 edition) which, as a US government publication, is in the public domain.

[edit] External links

• (Turkish) Official Turkish Armed Forces website
• (Turkish) Official Turkish Army website

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