These are SOF. Does Turkey have Marines?
Yes,
Amphibious Marine Infantry Brigade Command is the marine corps unit of the Turkish Naval Forces which consists 4,500 men based in Foça near İzmir, three amphibious battalions, an MBT battalion, an artillery battalion, a support battalion and other company-sized units.
Amphibious Marine Infantry Brigade Command Amfibi Deniz Piyade Tugay Komutanligi Amfibi Deniz Piyade
Amphibious Operations with Amphibious assault are the scope of the amphibious Naval Infantry Brigade Command. EMASYA (Safety for law enforcement and Assistance) and DAFYAR (Natural disaster relief) issues are among the tasks of the Brigade. Visualization of Social tranquility, earthquake, flood, landslide for EMASYA tasks and afetlerle, such as natural disaster relief in the context of the tasks that help the Turkish people, the Natural Union Leader staff exercises, performed on a periodic basis, with the bulk of the training and educations continuously kept in case of high readiness exercises.
Discipline is the most simple and Basic expression shape. Start and sustain their studies as a discipline made weekly. Also within the Brigade, training, sports, ceremonies, communications facilities, entertainment and other visits, social activities, as well as life in spite of great care at the highest level of services around. Special course training build trust, team spirit, conditioning and coordination is a source of creation. This route requires systematic studies staff strength as alternating power tasks. The philosophy of education of the amphibious Naval Infantry Brigade Command is task and task-oriented, with realistic combat training, such as the joint exercises, personal integrity, ranging from the maintenance and development of learning by doing, so the staff and units are aimed at being trained and organized in such a way that will be ready for any task at any moment.
The modern history of Turkish Marine Brigade, under the command of the Turkish Amphibious Group, began in 1966 with the formation of Amphibious Marine Infantry Brigade Command's first Amphibious Landing Forces, constituting the 1st Marine Infantry Battalion, was formed with Vice Admiral Kemal KAYACAN's encouragement on 15 September 1966 at the Garrison of Golcuk. The Forces Headquarters was established in Mersin in April 1971. The 2nd Amphibious Marine Infantry Battalion was founded in 1973, and the headquarters of the Amphibious Marine Infantry Regiment was constituted on 18 April 1974, completed prior to the Invasion of Cyprus.
The Amphibious Marine Infantry Regiment operated on July 20, 1974 in invasion from the sea of the island Cyprus is the first step to success with your head, have kept the ererek coastal honor throwing under the Republic for the first time, a campaign was successfully operated for such a power, a heroic epic by completing the kiyibasini safety by the Turkish armed forces has contributed to significant success. Amphibious Marine Infantry Division participated in the Second Peace Operation, with the success of given tasks fulfilled. Due to the success in Cyprus Peace Operation, on November 15, 1983, Chief of the General Staff awarded the Gold "Outstanding courage and Self-sacrifice" medal
After the Peace Operation in Cyprus in 1974, the 3rd Naval Infantry Battalion, the Amphibious Support Battalion, was formed in 1979 in Izmir. This completed the organization of the unit at the regimental level. Iin 1980, the 3rd Amphibious Marine Infantry Battalion temporarily deployed to Mersin to complete martial law executive tasks. In the period 1985-1992 many domestic and overseas drills were conducted (Display Determination, Doganbey, the first target, dawn, Imbat, Efes, Taurus, Ruins, etc.). And the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean deterrence tasks were performed successfully.
The Marine Infantry Brigade formed a "Special Amphibious Marine Infantry Battalion", December 20, 1993, in light of the State of emergency, which was later deployed to Mine/Sirnak province. The Special Battalion, under the 21st Tactical Commando Regiment's order, was given important tasks of cleaning the terrorists in the the Cudi Mountain and Sirnak region. These cleaning tasks were successfully fulfilleds and fulfilled and the Special Amphibious Marine Infantry Battalion was abolished on August 20, 2001.
In the wake of the bank crisis in Albania, the country suffered from confusion, and a multinational force was created to suppress the disorder. The Amphibious Marine Infantry Brigade with Special Amphibious Marine Infantry Battalion Command represented the Turkish armed forces. The Special Battalion arrived April 21, 1997, near Tirana, Albania. The Commando unit facilitated humanitarian aid supplies deliveries by secure patrols, and convoy safety tasks. In all the countries participating in the action, discipline, and superior understanding of the task were at the foreground with the naval task under the operation command of an Italian Lieutenant-General. from unity award. On 03 August 1997 the unit devolved back upon completing the task. Albania's Pasha Harbor naval base and the Naval Academy's Association of Turkish Logistics for the reconstruction of safety appointed solely for the purpose of providing a Division from the Sea, Amphibious Infantry Brigade Command on November 01, 1998 sent a company to Albania for the task.
In Afghanistan's capital Kabul and Surobi near Preveza, the Special Naval Infantry units deployed from 06 April to 6 December 2007 with the International Security and Assistance Force in Kabul's role within the Regional Command completed successfully fulfilling the historic protection task in Afghanistan.
Turkish-Greek relations entered a totally new phase in July 1999, beginning a political dialogue on bilateral issues between the two countries. For years after the "Kardak" crisis which brought Turkey and Greece to the brink of war over a deserted islet in the Eastern Aegean, such a development was definitely unexpected. In June 1999, Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem and Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou instructed their respective ministries to initiate a process of consultation and joint work on bilateral issues. In July 1999, Turkish and Greek joint committees started to hold talks in a spirit of cooperation and friendship, which yielded very positive results. Nine agreements on promoting cooperation in several fields ranging from environment to combating terrorism were concluded during the exchange of official visits by Foreign Ministers Cem and Papandreou in January and February 2000 -first of such in the last 40 years.
Proof of improved relations between Turkey and Greece was Turkey's participation in NATO's Dynamic Mix 2000 exercise which took place in Greece between May 20-June 10. In the final phase of the exercise, a company of 150 Turkish marines landed on the beach at Kyparissia on the West coast of the Greek Peloponesian peninsula. During the course of the exercise, a squadron of Turkish F-16 fighters arrived at the Anhialos base in Central Greece, which likewise had never occurred before in the history of the two NATO countries after the Cyprus crisis of 1974.
Marines of the 1st Turkish Marine Battalion took part in NATO Exercise Cooperative Partner 2003 at Shirokiy Lan Range on 23 June 2003. The Turkish Marines demonstrated medical and evacuating procedures. The cross training, which allows NATO and partner nation troops to learn one another's weapons and procedures, is part of NATO Exercise Cooperative Partner 2003, which this year took place in Ukraine. Turkish and Greek Marines in Zodiac rigid inflatable boats, flanked by Ukrainian BTR amphibious armored vehicles, come ashore during a demonstration of beach assault techniques at Shabanka, Ukraine on 27 June 2003. The simulated beach assault was a demonstration of NATO capability. The Greek amphibious landing ship HS Lesbos and the Turkish amphibious landing ship TCG Osmangazi took part in the drill.
The first phase of the Royal Navy's giant TAURUS 09 deployment in April 2009 culminated in a huge multi-national exercise off the coast of Turkey in which Royal Marines practised their amphibious assault capabilities. Turkish reconnaissance operators based on HMS Argyll, helicopters from the Commando Helicopter Force, RAF Chinooks and 40 Commando and Royal Naval personnel also took part in the exercise which was designed to test the Task Group's ability to influence a land-based objective. Split across the Amphibious Task Group, which consists of eleven Royal Navy ships, the Marines' headquarters and Alpha Company were onboard HMS Ocean, Charlie Company on RFA (Royal Fleet Auxiliary) Mounts Bay, and Delta Company, with much of the Logistics Company, on RFA Lyme Bay. Turkish Marines practiced a non-combatant evacuation, which meant moving people to safety from a practice refugee camp.
The Naval Reserve Infantry participated in NATO KFOR Operations in Kosovo in the May 2007-May 2008 period. Acting as a maneuver unit in the Multinational Division South Task Force under the German Battalion, the Marines patrolled the community of Prizren from June 2008. The Company Command, "Always Ready" was the password to continue to perform the task successfully.
Some 600 Turkish marines participated in the visit of Turkish Naval Forces vessels to the Port of Odessa between April 11 and 14, 2008. In September 2009 a resolution to enable Turkish soldiers to perform a duty to prevent piracy off the coast of Somalia was approved by t the Turkish Grand National Assembly. The resolution prepared by the Prime Ministry granted Turkish government with an authority to assign Turkish naval forces to perform at the Gulf of Aden, Somalia territorial waters and the Arab Sea. The duty of Turkish soldiers covered checking vessels that were suspected of armed robbery through radio, getting on board with the consent of flag state and if the vessels do not have a flag intervening with them in line with the international maritime laws.
The Turkish Marines Cemetery in Portsmouth UK was opened in 1993 to commemorate 26 Ottoman Turkish marines who lost their lives to a cholera epidemic and other diseases within six-and-a-half months after they have arrived in Portsmouth in two Ottoman naval vessels, Mirat-i Zafer and Sirag-i Bahri, to take training in artillery firing and navigation.
The Yammacks, a sort of Turkish Marines, abolished by Sultan Mahmoud at the time of the massacre of their better-known comrades, the Janizaries, wore a blue and gold jacket, only too familiar to the unwarlike Levantines.
Before the appointment of Hassan Pasha as High Admiral, the Turkish marines, or Galeongees, used to commit the greatest excesses with impunity, whenever they were ordered to embark on a cruize, breaking open the houses at Galata and Pera, and plundering every Raya they met, whether Greek, Jew, or Armenian. He determined toabolish this licentious practice, and succeeded in compelling the Galeongees to go unarmed, whenever they were allowed to be on shore, and even then only in small parties ; a regulation which his successors were unable to enforce. Hassan Pasha often went among them disguised, and more than once has inflicted capital punishment with his own hand on his disorderly troops.
To furnish himself with marines, besides a body of Asiatic recruits assembled in the Troad, in the early 19th Century the Porte had levied 800 Zaporogian Kossacks, expert boatmen and intrepid soldiers. Expelled from Russia by the Empress Catharine, and protected by the Sultan, their tribe, settled in Bithynia, and on the Lower Danube, enjoyed many privileges, and in time of war formed the Grand Vizier's cavalry guard.
By the end of the 19th Century the Turkish Marines were a splendid body of men, well set up and well drilled. It was their duty to mount guard at the naval arsenal, and, like the British marines, they were drafted for service afloat.