Jandarma: Turkey's 'war machine' goes global

[kartal1]

@Kaptaan
Sorry for the late post.

There are few things I would like to add.
- Historically, the administrative structure in Ottoman Empire was highly centralized. And yes, this naturally affected the behaviors and establishment of the organizations founded during the imperial period. However, as most Turks would know, this type of administrative formation did not start with the Ottoman-era. For that, we must go back even earlier than the Seljuk Empire which was the umbrella state form for the laterly dissolved Turkic dynasties of among whom rised the Osmanoğulları dynasty which later became to be known as the Ottomans. Taking the state application on education as reference, our history is split into three eras.
1- Turkish History before the adoption of Islam (Khaganetes and nomadic tribes in Central Asia)
2- Turkish History after the adoption of Islam (Mamluks, Seljuk, Ottoman and others)
3- Republican-era Turkish History (starts with Ataturk’s march on Samsun to commence the War of Independence until today and forward)

Each of this division is taught periodically in elementary, middle, and high schools..and lastly in university. The only difference is that in elementary school, each Turk is taught a superficial version of this and it gets as detailed the child grows. For example, in high-school important stuff such as the military structure of the empire, important diplomatic agreements or the Ottoman taxation and agricultural ownership system is being taught, of course not in a fully detailed format.

But you may wonder why am I writing all this crap about the taught of history in mandatory education levels in Turkey. Well, every Turkish child starts having the history classes as by first knowing this triple classification. Then, the very second thing that the children are being taught at each of these level is the ability of Turks to get organized skillfully.
In other words as most Turks grew in Turkey would remember and laugh, “The Turks are a society that exelled on the skills and ability of getting organized.” This is taught at every history lesson. And this ability to organize not only implies the origins of highly centralized structure in Jandarma, but also on the entire Turkic history. The point is, this type of administrative formation is not just Ottoman but instead it started with our existence in the first place, way before than Ottoman Empire.

I am sorry to go off topic by digging some history here. But I believe it was essential to describe the importance of centralized structuring not only to Jandarma and Turkey but for each and every one of 16 states the Turks have founded in the history and the organizations within them.

So from a positive point of view, for National Police and Gendarmerie, we may agree that centralized structure is a positive aspect that strengthens these two bodies. But this centrality mentality is on the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) as well. Historically our society is a militaristic society, thus the TSK is even more centralized.
And at times, as a person that served both with the Naval Forces and the Gendarmerie, I must say that for Gendarmerie it is okay. But on the other hand, the Armed Forces failed on this one. It took very clever administrative steps in the past. Examples are: creating an army-level formation dubbed as “the Aegean Army Command”, completely distinguished from NATO structures in order to counter the Greeks and Cypriots; creating their own attack and reconnaissance units for the Amphibious Naval Infantry Brigade so that excessive use of Naval SOF is prevented; forming spec ops (HÖH) specifically for the borderlines within the Land Forces.

You see, on a local basis, TSK is adapting to 21st century. However, as long as the upper chains of command remains as the same format, it will spin the wheel on itself. Today, TSK has forces at various parts in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Afghanistan. And on the contrary of TSK’s past, most of the overseas deployments today are combatant and advisory military presence instead of peace-keeping or UN-type duties. This alone requires a complete reevaluation of command chain for forces abroad. Perhaps, the only fit and suitable one is the forces at Cyprus. But then it is a different case where there are at least forty thousand troops deployed on the island. What we lack is that the Armed Forces and certain other ministries must change this historical mindset to an extent to combat the challenges efficiently. Yes, I said ministries as well. You can click on the website of any Turkish ministry. Go on to the structure page. At each of them you will see the same classification that is split into three:
1- Central Organization
2- Provincial Organization
3- Abroad Organization

This tells a lot that the State is still highly centralized. Thank god it is. But we must also see that the threats we are facing today require a hybrid approach where may need to adjust our structures and focus it uniquely on the nature of threat.

I am sorry for the very long, history smelling post. But I think it was important to touch upon the education of history, dynamics of the military and ministerial structures to show a smaller and different perspective on having a highly centralized organization.

Lastly, here is the recently made Happy New Year’s video made by the Gendarmerie General Command

Very informative and good explained! Congratulations!

 

[xenon54 out]

During new year celebration in Taksim square.