Turkey: NATIONAL SECURITY

Armed Forces Overview: Turkey’s armed forces, the second largest in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), are mainly made up of conscripts commanded by a cadre of professional soldiers. In 2005 the army had 402,000 active personnel, the navy had 52,750 active personnel, and the air force had 60,100. Of the active personnel, about 391,000 were conscripts, mainly in the army. In addition, some 379,000 were in the reserves and 150,000 in the national guard. Turkey contributes troops to several United Nations and NATO peacekeeping operations as well as maintaining a significant force in Turkish Cyprus. In 1998 a major expansion of the domestic arms industry began with the aim of withstanding an arms embargo such as the one imposed by the United States in the mid-1970s after the Cyprus conflict. The Ministry of Defense nominally controls the military, but in fact the chief of the General Staff is the most powerful figure in the military, and he enjoys substantial autonomy.

Foreign Military Relations: In 1996 Turkey signed two military cooperation agreements with Israel, making it the first Muslim country to establish such a relationship with that country. Between 1996 and 2002, military and economic ties between the two countries blossomed. The two nations shared training exercises and intelligence information and cooperated on joint security and weapons projects. However, in the early 2000s Turkey condemned Israeli actions against Palestine, cooling the relationship. In 2005 Israel and Turkey signed a new round of joint military production agreements. Turkey participated actively in the United States-led war on terrorism, sending 1,000 troops to Afghanistan in 2002 and taking command of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)’s International Security Assistance Force in that country in 2002 and again in 2005. However, because of the Kurdish situation Turkey blocked U.S. troop movement into Iraq at the onset of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. In 2002 Turkey was granted an advisory role in military operations of the European Union (EU). In the early 2000s, nearly all of Turkey’s arms acquisitions have been from EU countries or Israel.

External Threat: Beginning in the 1960s, regional disputes have brought Turkey and Greece close to war on several occasions. Although general relations have improved, in the early 2000s negotiators failed to reach a treaty ending the Cyprus crisis. In 2003 the U.S. invasion of Iraq increased Turkey’s fears that Kurds from northern Iraq would unite with Kurds in southeastern Turkey to renew claims for an autonomous or independent Kurdistan.

Defense Budget: In 2002 Turkey’s official defense expenditure was US$6.5 billion, but reportedly the actual expenditure, including funds for the military police and Coast Guard, was US$9.2 billion. The official expenditure for 2003 was US$8.1 billion and US$8.5 billion for 2004. The 10-year program to upgrade the defense industry received an initial allocation of US$31 billion.

Major Military Units: In 2004 the army had 2 infantry divisions, 17 armored brigades, 15 mechanized infantry brigades, 11 infantry brigades, 5 commando brigades, 8 training brigades, 4 aviation regiments, 1 attack helicopter battalion, and 3 aviation battalions. The air force had 11 squadrons of ground attack fighters, 7 squadrons of fighter jets, 2 reconnaissance squadrons, 5 transport squadrons, and 4 surface-to-air missile squadrons. The Naval Forces Command was divided into the Northern Sea Area Sub-command, the Southern Sea Area Sub-command, a Training Sub-command, and a Fleet Sub-command. One regiment of marines (3,100 troops) also was on active duty.

Major Military Equipment: In 2004 the army had 4,205 main battle tanks, 250 armored reconnaissance vehicles, 650 armored infantry fighting vehicles, 830 armored personnel carriers, more than 679 pieces of towed artillery, 868 pieces of self-propelled artillery, about 100 multiple rocket launchers, 5,813 mortars, 1,283 antitank guided weapons, 3,869 recoilless launchers, 3,288 antiaircraft guns, 897 surface-to-air missiles, 820 aircraft, 37 attack helicopters, and 284 support helicopters. The navy had 13 submarines, 19 frigates, 21 missile combat vessels, 28 patrol craft, 1 minelayer, 23 mine countermeasures vessels, 8 amphibious vessels, 27 support vessels, and 16 armed helicopters. The air force had 480 combat aircraft, 40 support helicopters, and no attack helicopters.

Military Service: The majority of military personnel are conscripted. At age 19, males are eligible to be conscripted for a 15-month tour of active duty, which was shortened from 18 months in 2003. University graduates may be conscripted as reserve officers for a 12-month period.

Paramilitary Forces: The National Guard, or Jandarma, includes 150,000 active personnel and a reserve of 50,000, under the command of the Ministry of Interior in peacetime and the Ministry of Defense in wartime. Included are one border division and three brigades, of which one is a commando brigade. Between 1988 and 2004, border security was the responsibility of the military; the Ministry of Interior reassumed this duty to meet a European Union requirement. The Coast Guard has 2,200 active-duty personnel, of which 1,400 are conscripts.

Foreign Military Forces: Turkey hosts the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Joint Command South-East. In 2005 that installation included some 1,650 U.S. Air Force personnel.

Military Forces Abroad: In 2004 Turkey had 36,000 troops, including two infantry divisions, in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Turkey also had 161 troops with the International Stabilization Force in Afghanistan, 1,200 with the stabilization force in Bosnia, one infantry battalion group with United Nations forces in East Timor, 940 troops with the Kosovo Force in Serbia and Montenegro, and observers in Georgia and Italy. In 2005 Turkey took a second turn in command of the International Stabilization Force. Because of strong public disapproval of the war in Iraq, no Turkish troops participated in the United States-led Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Police: The National Police, under the Ministry of Interior, are responsible for security in urban areas. Under the central directorate of this force are sub-directorates for each province. Specialized units deal with problems such as narcotics and smuggling. The exact size of the police force is not known. The 150,000-member paramilitary National Guard, or Jandarma, also under the Ministry of Interior except for wartime situations, is responsible for security outside urban areas—about 90 percent of Turkey’s territory. Jandarma officers come from the military academy, and recruits are conscripted. In the early 2000s, another force, called the village guards, was stationed mainly in southeastern Turkey to prevent upheavals in Kurdish territory. In the early 2000s, Turkey responded to international human rights pressure by revising the training of its Jandarma and National Police, which had a longstanding reputation for brutality and corruption. Younger police cadets now are sought to undergo a much longer training program emphasizing human rights. However, in 2004 several incidents of human rights abuses by police were reported, and sentences for such crimes remained light. In 2004 parliament established a judicial police force, under the administration of the Ministry of Interior, to assist prosecutors in investigating criminal cases.

Internal Threat: Because of its location, Turkey is a major transfer point on east-west drug smuggling routes, particularly those moving heroin from southwest Asia into Europe. Drug-related crimes such as money laundering also are common. However, the rate of violent crime and street crime is relatively low. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the main Kurdish terrorist organization, officially renounced terror in 2000 but resumed attacks in 2004. Turkey’s fears of Kurdish autonomy revived when the United States invaded neighboring Iraq in 2003.

Terrorism: Beginning in 1984, Turkey suffered waves of terrorist activity by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Urban terrorism increased sharply in the early 1990s. Many incidents were attributed to the radical Islamist group Dev Sol, which attacked Western targets in response to the Persian Gulf War of 1991. In the 1990s and the early 2000s, Dev Sol and its successor organization, the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party, launched assassinations and other attacks against Turkish authorities and Westerners. For extended periods of time in the early 1990s, the PKK was able to control significant territory in the southeast. In the mid-1990s, Turkish forces launched a series of attacks against PKK bases, and PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan was captured in 1999. In 2000 the PKK announced a formal end to its terrorist campaign against Turkey. Renunciation of that status in 2004 resulted in a series of terrorist attacks in 2004 and 2005. Meanwhile, in the late 1990s the Turkish military was accused of having ties with the Iranian-supported Hezbollah terrorist group (a separate group from the Lebanese Hezbollah), and in 2000 Turkish authorities launched a successful attack against the Hezbollah leadership in Turkey. Although in 2005 Hezbollah and the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders Front were considered the strongest Islamic terrorist organizations in Turkey, neither was believed capable of large-scale attacks. In November 2003 and March 2004, a series of terrorist bomb attacks targeted Western and Jewish sites in Istanbul. The Great Eastern Islamic Raiders Front, suspected to have connections to al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the November bombings.

Human Rights: In the early 2000s, the position of Turkey’s large Kurdish minority remained the largest ethnic human rights issue. Some improvement occurred in the position of Turkey’s Kurdish minority after governments had blocked public assemblies and the distribution of literature by Kurdish groups. In 2002 the rights of Kurds were expanded, together with a broader human rights reform program. In 2003 Turkey passed extensive reforms to comply with the human rights standards of the European Union. Reforms included harsher sentences for authorities convicted of torture, improving the availability of lawyers to accused individuals, allowing media broadcasts in Kurdish and other minority languages, and making it possible for a civilian to head the National Security Council. The death penalty was abolished for civil crimes in peacetime. However, human rights groups reported that implementation of these reforms was slow. In 2004 arbitrary arrest and detention occurred, journalists were harassed for antigovernment views, assembly and association were restricted occasionally, pretrial detention and judicial trials were overly long, the government still appeared to influence the outcome of some trials, and prison conditions were described as poor. The government has limited the activities of the media and harassed journalists expressing controversial views. In December 2005, the trial of novelist Orhan Pamuk for writings allegedly insulting the Turkish nation received international attention.

The right to practice religion generally has been respected. The state has limited financial and organizational activities of Greek and Armenian Christians, although legislation proposed in 2004 would remove some restrictions. Muslim activities have been circumscribed when undertaken in state-run institutions, and the state Directorate of Religious Affairs, responsible to the prime minister, oversees the operation of all religious institutions. Violence against women, particularly spousal abuse, is very common, and few victims file complaints. Honor killings of “disgraced” female family members continue in rural areas. Turkey is a destination and a transit point for a moderate amount of trafficking in women and children.

	Web www.mongabay.com