I understand it that way. The General Staff with the Force Commanders (Land, Sea, Air) were connected to the Ministry of Defense when the country is at peace but they took out the word "at peace" and that means that under any circumstances the General Staff and the Force Commands are under the "command" of the Ministry of Defense. Their reforms included reforming of the Supreme Military Council by excluding the Gendarmerie General Commander, Navy Commander, Army Commanders and the generals and admirals that are connected to them. At the moment the members of the Supreme Military Council are only the Prime Minister, General Staff Commander, Prime Minister advisors, Minister of Justice,
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister of Defense, Force Commanders (Land Forces Commander, Sea Forces Commander, Air Forces Commander).
Also the functions of the secretary are taken from the 2nd General Staff Commander by the Ministry of Defense. Not only Gendarmerie but also the Coast Guard Command was transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The command of the military hospital GATA was given to the Ministry of Health. The military schools and the schools that were preparing junior officer candidates were closed and the authority of the Military Academies was given to the National Defense University under the Ministry of Defense.
The Supreme Military Commander presenting
the Turkish Grand National Assembly is the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
They are enlarging the number of Police Special Operations personnel by decreasing the minimal age to 18 years old, excluding the condition for completed military service and decreasing the time of the training program. In 2016 according to sources the Police Special Operations had 7.800 personnel, in 2017 should have at least 17.000 personnel and the number is rising in 2018. The Gendarmerie Special Operations personnel stayed at about the same numbers and I am not sure about 2018. The result is close to 40.000 special forces that are special trained and even have elite teams (JOPER) under the command of the Gendarmerie Public Safety Command that are very very professional and highly trained under harsh environment with very high tactical competence and capability of conducting military grade special operations from air, land and sea. We don't count all the Gendarmerie Commando brigades.
I see that system as 3 point assurance program:
1st. Take the command of the General Staff under the Ministry of Defense.
2nd. If that Do not work you have the combined force of the Gendarmerie General Command,
Coast Guard Command and the General Directorate of Security (Police)
3rd. If Gendarmerie and/or Coast Guard by some reason do not obey to the Ministry of Internal Affairs you have the Police that have enough personnel and units that are capable to conduct military grade operations and also have Sea Police forces to try to imply some kind of control over the waters. You have also attack helicopter fleet under the police forces that can give air support to the forces aligned to you if the Gendarmerie is not available with its fleet and around 200.000 personnel.
I am sure that some people will be angry when they see this post but that is the situation and also that is my interpretation of the situation.
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