Well it's true Turkish soldiers are even to this day poorly equipped compared to those of other NATO armies.
The only turkish forces I can think of that can match the personal equipments of other NATO armies are army and gendarmerie commandos.
It was always bad but the good think is that at least our special forces are good equipped except to some extend POH but their situation I think is more tied to concepts and tactics.
In like 2014 we started to see the Special Forces Command (OKK) with a Ops Core Fast helmets, after that we started to see them with the Gendarmerie Special Operations JOH but the Sentry models in limited numbers. Not to far from the city operations 2014/2015 JOH also started receiving a better vests made by Garanti Giyim. They were not something top notch but still were pretty good compared to the old ones. Then both the Gendarmerie Commando brigades and JOH started to receive the Ops Cores and the new vests with a bigger number. We also started to see holographic sights or other accessories with them in a limited quantity (buyed from the budged of the units in a limited quantities with permission or from personnel's personal wallet). On that time POH the Police Special Operation units were wearing old uniforms and vest types and the only new about them was their weapons like SIG516 and HK417 aaand welcome to the city operations. Some of the JOH had from the old vests but some from the new Garanti Giyim ones and as far as I saw everybody had Ops Core Sentry helmet, G3/HK33 and with some of them nice accessories. POH was forced to test 3 types of helmets, change its equipment from head to toe including boots, vests, uniforms, all what is coming to your mind and they mostly did it pretty good. On that time OKK, SAT, SAS were receiving newer and newer equipment, JOAK also received from the new Garanti Giyim vests, Ops Cores and were testing HK416A5 but unfortunately their standard service rifle stayed HK33.
Now its 2018. All the special forces are perfectly equipped, all the Gendarmerie units changing their standard camo uniforms and equipment to a good looking, more functional ones. They are receiving from the MPT76, KCR556.
What did the land forces got? More from the awful looking oversized "egg" helmets (that's what the people are calling them on forums), more hunting vests, more from the awfully designed "tactical" vests, project for large quantity purchase for GTX brown boots from YDS, from which I don't see actually on the field, some low quality combat shirts (different types) which I again suspect to be purchased from soldier's wallets, for the tankers new helmet with protection goggles kit from Aselsan (good), Hulusi Akar the Chief of General Staff on that time testing different uniform and boot every 2 months and that's it.
In 2016 we started to see a bigger quantity MPT76 troughout the Euphrates Shield operation with some accessories which I think they bought from their own wallet, new model vests which were for sure more functional and better looking, more and better usage of utility pouches by the land forces commandos and that was the moment when I was starting to feel some hope for them. We also started to see different helmet models tested in Egirdir Mountain Commando School and Training Center from Garanti Giyim with modular design, rails, fast models, with ear protection etc. Then the Manbij patrols came and I saw a properly equipped land forces commandos and after these pictures showing the proper kit in near future for the land forces commandos was showed and that was the moment when I relaxed.
There was still some hope that the previously introduced almost French bad copy ridiculous uniform will not be delivered in large quantities but only for training and then news came from the ground with source one of the most respected Facebook/Twitter pages sharing news about the development of the war against terrorism and the rights of the soldiers and they said that the first uniform pairs were delivered to units in Western Turkey and the new uniform will be most probably the standard uniform and camo pattern of the Land Forces Command and the Special Forces Command and I was about to cry... This was the story for one fvcked up situation (crying in the corner).
