Jandarma: Turkey's 'war machine' goes global

[Neptune]

Metin Gurcan December 28, 2017

ARTICLE SUMMARY
The ambitious Turkish gendarmerie command is seeking to form a cooperative agency with countries in and around Central Asia as part of its increased involvement in Turkey's foreign policy.

REUTERS/Murad Sezer
Turkish gendarmerie officers on motorcycles take part in a ceremony marking the 95th anniversary of Victory Day in Istanbul, Turkey, Aug. 30, 2017.

The public should expect to hear the name of the Turkish Gendarmerie General Command frequently in 2018 as it becomes a major tool for Turkey’s foreign policy, with plans to coordinate with other Eurasian police forces.

The gendarmerie forces are responsible for law enforcement in rural areas, which make up about 65% of Turkey's territory. As of November, it had 180,000 personnel. About 60% of the personnel are professionals including officers, noncommissioned officers and contracted personnel, and 40% are conscripts.

But the gendarmerie command — which is active in combating terror and border security with its attack helicopters, heavy armored vehicles, armed drones and combat-proven special operations teams at its disposal — appears more like an army with serious conventional military capabilities instead of a rural police force.

This war machine attached to the Ministry of Interior apparently is becoming an important foreign policy instrument. The gendarmerie command, which has been in close cooperation with Italy and France in training and joint exercises, also executes its own train-and-equip programs in Macedonia, Gambia and Somalia. Now it is eyeing Eurasia for 2018.

Turkish media reports say the command aims to reactivate the Organization of the Eurasian Law Enforcement Agencies with Military Status. The group goes by the acronym TAKM, from the names of its founders: Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia, four Turkic-speaking countries. The group was set up in 2013 in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, with the aim of strengthening cooperation and experience-sharing among the countries' law enforcement personnel. However, the organization has not become active due to the reluctance of Mongolia.

According to TAKM's charter, any Eurasian country with gendarmerie law enforcement units could apply for membership, and Kazakhstan has expressed a firm intention to join. Russia is also closely following the reactivation efforts.

Turkey is an active member of the European and Mediterranean Gendarmeries and Police Forces with Military Status (FIEP). Turkey also has observer status in the European Gendarmerie Force (EGF), which covers only European countries. In addition, there are regional organizations of African countries under the African Union. TAKM plans to compete with all of these groups, using a Eurasian twist. TAKM will have a term presidency, a permanent secretariat and a general council of directors/commanders. It will have four permanent commissions of operations: organization, combating crime, personnel and training cooperation, and research and development.

TAKM will hold an annual council meeting with general commanders in the capital of the country that holds that term's presidency. TAKM’s mission statement foresees close cooperation in many diverse areas including combating terror, intervening in mass conflicts and refugee movements, securing borders, supporting and keeping the peace, public relations, fighting international criminal networks, conducting criminal and forensic investigations, protecting the environment and historical sites, conducting special operations and combating cybercrime.

This new body will enable the command to quietly develop low-profile military and security cooperation without any conflicts with NATO or Western allies, officials said.

The Turkish gendarmerie was hastily detached from the operational command of the Turkish General Staff following the July 15, 2016, failed coup. It was attached to the Ministry of Interior with all of its components, including personnel, intelligence, operations, logistics and training units by an emergency decree on July 27, 2016.

The gendarmerie, which fought in World War I and in Cyprus in 1974, is the only gendarmerie force with conventional combat experience, compared with some 50 similar forces in foreign countries. It was also active in Turkey’s Operation Euphrates Shield, which took place in Syria from August 2016 to March 2017. Today, the force is policing Syria’s Jarablus/al-Rai/al-Bab triangle.

Found in:DEFENSE/SECURITY COOPERATION

Metin Gurcan is a columnist for Al-Monitor's Turkey Pulse. He served in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Iraq as a Turkish military adviser from 2002 to 2008. After resigning from the military, he became an Istanbul-based independent security analyst. Gurcan obtained his PhD in 2016 with a dissertation on changes in the Turkish military over the preceding decade. He has published extensively in Turkish and foreign academic journals, and his book “What Went Wrong in Afghanistan: Understanding Counterinsurgency in Tribalized, Rural, Muslim Environments” was published in August 2016. On Twitter: @Metin4020

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/ori...ng-among-gendarmerie-ranks.html#ixzz52hAjaSqn

 

[Path-Finder]

Turkey has helped in Training Pakistan's police against terrorism, where once these policemen would be drinking chai while on duty and running when a suicide bomber arrived. To making a stand against these terrorist neutralising them like the recent attack on the church.

 

[Indus Pakistan]

As of November, it had 180,000 personnel.

Pakistan would need a Jandarma force of 450,000 to have the same density within the country. I read your post in that other thread. Probably the single biggest improvement Pakistan could take to improve internal law and order is set up Turkish style Jandarma. The resulting improvement in law and order would have profound effects on improving investor confidence in the country.

 

[Path-Finder]

Pakistan would need a Jandarma force of 450,000 to have the same density within the country. I read your post in that other thread. Probably the single biggest improvement Pakistan could take to improve internal law and order is set up Turkish style Jandarma. The resulting improvement in law and order would have profound effects on improving investor confidence in the country.

FC/Rangers!! Gendarmerie are paramilitary organisation so is FC/Rangers.

 

[Indus Pakistan]

FC/Rangers!! Gendarmerie are paramilitary organisation so is FC/Rangers.

If you speak with the Turkish members or have been to Turkey the Jandarma while having some similarities to FC are entirely differant in quantity, quality and remit.

 

[Hyperion]

You have absolutely no idea of what Jandarma is. You can't even compare Jandarma to PA. Not even in the same league.

FC/Rangers!! Gendarmerie are paramilitary organisation so is FC/Rangers.

 

[Indus Pakistan]

This below is from @Neptunes post # 240 https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/coul...in-case-of-a-war.526917/page-16#post-10112576


It is worth mentioning that structurally and on practice, the Turkish Gendarmerie (JGK) is different than many gendarmerie forces in Europe which it was modeled after at late Ottoman period. Today this difference is still visible. At first, I must mention that (hence idk the case in Pakistan), security institutions in Turkey, excluding the armed forces, is highly centralized. Therefore JGK is the primary national law enforcement agency in the country's administrative regions outside the metropolitan areas (basically towns, villages and borderlines). What is not known by non-Turkish readers is that during the initial years of the Republic till late 1990s, JGK was the mother, teacher, doctor and everything of the villages and towns in Turkey through the initiative taken by the officers. When someone was sick at winter, at a mountainous village, with the request of local gendarmerie officer, JGK dispatches air evacuation for the sick civilian to a city hospital when the health sector was not developed; or when education on far villages was rough and female children were often not sent to school by their families one or two decades ago, the commanding officer of the local Gendarmerie post takes a platoon and a teacher then kicks in the house and makes sure that small children regardless of gender and ethnicity were provided their very own right of compulsory education as stated by the Constitution. The point is, apart from being a huge nightmare for PKK, Gendarmerie not only brought the reforms to the unreachable points of the country, it also maintained it till today and so on. Basically where there is Gendarmerie, there is the State.

Its functions are:
- Military Duties (Counter-terrorism; deployments in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Kosovo, Bosnia; and border security).
During the counter-terrorism missions the following units are employed: Gendarmerie Special Operations and Public Order Command (JÖAK), Gendarmerie Special Operations (JÖH), Gendarmerie Commando Battalions stationed at southeastern Turkey, Gendarmerie Public Order Corps headquartered in far eastern Turkey, Hakkari Gendarmerie Mountain and Commando Brigade, and the Provincial Gendarmerie Commando Regiments. These units, Land Forces Commando units and the National Police's own special operations unit PÖH all operate under the command and control of the Gendarmerie 23rd Border Division which oversees the counter-terrorism operations throughout southeastern Turkey and Northern Iraq.

- Law Enforcement Duties (in conjunction with its law and the Law on the Duties and Powers of the Turkish National Police)
- Other Duties (Security of courts and prisons)

 

[Path-Finder]

If you speak with the Turkish members or have been to Turkey the Jandarma while having some similarities to FC are entirely differant in quantity, quality and remit.

my point is in Punjab they did a copy and paste job from Turkey called Dolphin force which is nothing more than kak. The quality will have to be brought up to standard within one's domain. Doing a copy and paste won't be sufficient if factors like organised institutionalisation is not thoroughly pursued.

You have absolutely no idea of what Jandarma is. You can't even compare Jandarma to PA. Not even in the same league.

okay

 

[Indus Pakistan]

my point

Please read post 8 which is from Neptunes post from another thread. Jandarma is like Pakistan Army but better equipped and all of it deployed inside Pakistan as permanent law and order. I think we can never have anything like Jandarma - it would take a long time to get there because my feeling is Jandarma has it's DNA from the the Ottoman era and it's highly centralized militaristic structure and ethos. For instance which force in Pakistan could do this? Read the extract below.

JGK was the mother, teacher, doctor and everything of the villages and towns in Turkey through the initiative taken by the officers. When someone was sick at winter, at a mountainous village, with the request of local gendarmerie officer, JGK dispatches air evacuation for the sick civilian to a city hospital when the health sector was not developed; or when education on far villages was rough and female children were often not sent to school by their families one or two decades ago, the commanding officer of the local Gendarmerie post takes a platoon and a teacher then kicks in the house and makes sure that small children regardless of gender and ethnicity were provided their very own right of compulsory education as stated by the Constitution.

 

[Path-Finder]

Please read post 8 which is from Neptunes post from another thread. Jandarma is like Pakistan Army but better equipped and all of it deployed inside Pakistan as permanent law and order. I think we can never have anything like Jandarma - it would take a long time to get there because my feeling is Jandarma has it's DNA from the the Ottoman era and it's highly centralized militaristic structure and ethos. For instance which force in Pakistan could do this? Read the extract below.

In what way is what I am saying contradicts with your view?

 

[Indus Pakistan]

In what way is what I am saying contradicts with your view?

As I explained Jandarma is a more professional force then PA, better equiped with vastly greater resources. FC is poorly resourced and a shadow of Jandarma. As Hyperion already said Jandarma is at another league even compared to PA.

 

[Path-Finder]

As I explained Jandarma is a more professional force then PA, better equiped with vastly greater resources. FC is poorly resourced and a shadow of Jandarma. As Hyperion already said Jandarma is at another league even compared to PA.

bloody hell, all I am trying to say is they may not be on the same league but they mirror the Jandarma. can be brought to better standard that suits Pakistani locality.

pardon the profanity.

 

[Indus Pakistan]

can be brought to better standard that suits Pakistani locality.

Pakistani elite will not do that. That is why minimum investment is made in internal law and order. As long as they have guards on their gates and vehicle protocals they are not bothered about spending billions on bringing every square inch of Pakistan under stable secure control.

Jandarma works on the notion that every square inch of Turkey feels the secure hand of the state - that is why they cover every village even high up in the mountains of Kurdistan. The Jandarma I believe have a larger helicopter force then even Pakistan Army. All this to keep country under firm hand of law and order where everybody is safe.

And I get a feeling the Jandarma is modern iteration of the Ottoman centralized militaristic order.

 

[Path-Finder]

Pakistani elite will not do that. That is why minimum investment is made in internal law and order. As long as they have guards on their gates and vehicle protocals they are not bothered about spending billions on bringing every square inch of Pakistan under stable secure control.

Jandarma works on the notion that every square inch of Turkey feels the secure hand of the state - that is why they cover every village even high up in the mountains of Kurdistan. The Jandarma I believe have a larger helicopter force then even Pakistan Army. All this to keep country under firm hand of law and order where everybody is safe.

And I get a feeling the Jandarma is modern iteration of the Ottoman centralized militaristic order.

IF such force was created in Pakistan, that was well funded and based on the Gendarmerie. Then it cannot be in the hands of politicians! A force like this will be used to target political opposition.

 

[Indus Pakistan]

IF such force was created in Pakistan, that was well funded and based on the Gendarmerie. Then it cannot be in the hands of politicians! A force like this will be used to target political opposition.

Well, to begin with the country would have to be prepared to pay for this. For instance to copy the Turkish model we would need to raise a force as large as Pakistan Army - or nearly as large at about 450,000 men. And provide it with similar if not greater resources then PA. The force would have to report to the COAS. In effect we would have the army playing full time job in internal security which would be a good thing anyway.

But honestly I can't see Pakistan copying the Turkish Jandarma model 100%. The fact is the Turks have very nationalistic culture. To them the Turkish flag is almost like god is to Pakistanis. The turks are very united in that nationalism. any visit to Turkey will reveal this. Their red flags flutter everwhere. Their identity begins and ends with that red flag. It's fcuk everything else but the red flag.

All this unity and centralized mind comes i believe from the Ottoman era. Since we do not have a history like they do some things we will struggle to replicate in Pakistan. That is sad but that is how it is.

And for our Turkish members FC is Frontier Corps. A paramilitary unit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontier_Corps