Turkish Land Forces (Turk Kara Kuvvetleri)
150px Turkish Army Seal
Active	Army of the Grand National Assembly: November 8, 1920[1]- Three army inspectorates era: October 21, 1923- Turkish Land Forces Command: July 1, 1949[2][3]-present
Country	Turkey
Size	717,686 active personnel[4]
Part of	Turkish Armed Forces
Equipment	See: Modern equipment and uniform of the Turkish Army
Engagements	Turkish War of Independence Korean War (Turkish Brigade) Operation Atilla UNOSOM II KFOR ISAF Turkey-PKK Conflict
Commanders
Commander of the Turkish Land Forces	General Hayri Kıvrıkoğlu

The Turkish Army or Turkish Land Forces (Turkish: Türk Kara Kuvvetleri) is the main branch of the Turkish Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The modern history of the army began with its formation after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Significant events since the foundation of the Army include combat in the Korean War and in the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, and acting as a NATO bulwark along Cold War frontiers through 1992. Today it is the second-largest army of NATO^[5][6] with 717,686 personnel.^[4]

The army holds the preeminent place within the armed forces. It is customary for the Chief of the General Staff of the Republic of Turkey to have been the Commander of the Turkish Land Forces prior to his appointment as Turkey's senior ranking officer. Alongside the other two armed services, the Turkish Army has frequently intervened in Turkish politics, which has now been regulated to an extent with the reform of the National Security Council. The current commander of the Turkish Land Forces is General Hayri Kıvrıkoğlu.^[7]

History[link]

War of Independence[link]

The modern Turkish Army has its foundations in nine remnant Ottoman Army corps^{[dn 1]} after the Armistice of Mudros at the end of World War I. After the rise of Turkish resistances (Kuva-yi Milliye) in Anatolia, Mustafa Kemal and his colleagues formed the Grand National Assembly (GNA) in Ankara on April 23, 1920, Kâzım Karabekir's XV Corps was the only corps which at that time had any combat value.^[8] On November 8, 1920, the GNA decided to establish a standing army (Düzenli ordu) instead of irregular troops (Kuva-yi Milliye, Çerkes Ethem's Kuva-yi Seyyare etc.).^[1] On August 26, 1922, the Army of the Grand National Assembly^[9][10] (Büyük Millet Meclisi Ordusu) launched the general offensive known as the Great Offensive (Büyük Taarruz) against the Greek forces around Kara Hisâr-ı Sâhip. Nureddin's 1st Army and Yakub Shevki's 2nd Army encircled the main body of Major General Nikolaos Trikoupis's group and defeated it near Dumlupınar. Fahreddin's V Cavalry Corps entered Smyrna (Izmir) on September 9, 1922. Şükrü Naili's III Corps entered Constantinople (Istanbul) peacefully on October 6, 1923. Subsequently to the founding of the Republic of Turkey, the Army of the GNA was reorganized into three army inspectorates (ordu müfettişliği, 1st, 2nd and 3rd army inspectorate).

During World War II, Turkey mobilized more than 1 million personnel. The Turkish Army order of battle in 1941 shows a number of formations. The command of the Turkish Army was formed on July 1, 1949 and Nuri Yamut was appointed as the first commander of the Turkish Army.^[2]

Cold War Era[link]

Korean War[link]

The Turkish Army participated in the Korean War as a member state of the United Nations, suffering 731 deaths in combat out of the 5000 soldiers of the Turkish Brigade there, which fought at battles of Kunu-ri (Kunu-ri) where it was credited with saving the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division from encirclement.^[11] The brigade fought also at Gimnyangjang-ni (Kumyangjang-ni), 'Operation Ripper,' or the Fourth Battle of Seoul, and Vegas ("Vegas").

After Turkey joined NATO on February 18, 1952, the government initiated a comprehensive modernization program for its Armed Forces.

Cyprus Peace Operation[link]

In July 1974, Turkey intervened in Cyprus, following a coup organized by EOKA-B and led by Nikos Sampson who ousted the democratically elected Cypriot President Archbishop Makarios III in order to establish Enosis (Union) between Greece and Cyprus. The coup was backed by the Greek military junta in Athens.

The Turkish operation of Cyprus can be divided into two distinct Turkish offensives, the first being "Atilla 1", which commenced in the early hours of July 20, 1974, with an amphibious landing force forming a beachhead at Kyrenia's Five Mile Beach (sa comprised only infantry troops, but was supported by rolling air and naval artillery attacks, and met with limited resistance from the Cyprus National Guard, which was in disarray as a result of the July 15, 1974 coup. The majority of fighting ceased on the 23rd of July, though sporadic clashes continued after this date until the 14th of August.^[12] "Atilla 1" successfully achieved its objective of forming a bridgehead with the Turkish Cypriot enclave of Agyrta-Nicosia.^[13]

Turkish troops during a NATO exercise

The second Turkish offensive began on August 14, 1974, as Greek and Turkish Cypriot representatives met in Geneva to discuss the situation on the island. Turkish pleas for international intervention having failed and very slow diplomatic progress, in addition to being confined to an undefensible and non-viable region in Cyprus, Turkish Armed forces took action again. Despite a UN ceasefire in place (several had already been disregarded),^[13] the Turkish Army, massively reinforced from weeks of build-up, launched an all-out surprise attack on ill-prepared Greek Cypriot and Greek units. With little answer to the masses of armour, mechanised units, artillery and air support that the Turks could bring to bear, virtually all Greek Cypriot defences collapsed in a matter of days, and by August 16, 1974, Turkish forces, spearheaded by the 28th and 39th Infantry Divisions, had extended to capture some 37% of the island, including the towns of Famagusta, Varosha and Morphou.^[14]

The conflict in Cyprus resulted in the de-facto division of the island between the Turkish Cypriot controlled north and the Greek Cypriot controlled south. Turkey still maintains troops in Cyprus, since a political solution could not yet be achieved and since many members of the Turkish Cypriot community fear a return to the intercommunal violence which occurred between 1963 and 1974.^[15]

Units and equipments[link]

According to official British military reports in 1974, the Turkish Army included the First Army (II, III, V, and XV Corps), Second Army (IV, VI, and VII Corps) and Third Army (VIII, IX, and XI Corps). There were also three Interior Zones with three recruit training divisions and four recruit training brigades.^[16] For a long period, these formations were grouped under the NATO headquarters LANDSOUTHEAST at Izmir, led by a Turkish Army four-star General. After the fall of the Soviet Union the headquarters became Joint Command Southeast for a period, before becoming Allied Air Component Command Izmir in 2004.^[17]

In 1981/82, the Army had 1 armoured division, 2 mechanised infantry Divisions, and 14 Infantry Divisions, with 3000 M47 MBTs, 500 M48 MBTs, as well as 70 Leopard 1A3 on order, for a total of 3570 tanks.^[18]

Until the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1990, the Army had a static defense mission of countering any possible attack on Thrace by Soviet and Warsaw Pact forces and any attack by the Soviet Transcaucasus Military District on the Caucasus frontier. The Third Army was responsible for holding the Caucasus line with about one third of the Army's total strength of one armoured, two mechanised, and fourteen infantry divisions (1986 data).^[19] When the General Staff attempted to shift 120,000 troops to the frontier with Iraq in 1990, they discovered, the writers of the U.S. Library of Congress Country Studies said, that there were serious deficiencies in the Army's ability to respond to crises that could erupt suddenly in distant regions.^[20] The Army was even less prepared for a situation requiring the deployment and logistical support of forces in operations beyond Turkey's borders.

Modernization[link]

Towards the end of the 1980s, a restructuring and modernization process has been initiated by the Turkish Armed Forces, which still continues today. The final goal of Turkey is to produce indigenous military equipment and to become increasingly self-sufficient in terms of military technologies.^[21]

The then-Army Commander said of further modernization efforts in 2006:

Gen. Büyükanıt, who sent crucial messages regarding the future of the Land Forces, said that the country's own instabilities should also be taken into consideration. He reported that the land forces will shrink considerably within the next eight years. But he said that despite this process, the force's capacities will be increased. "The Land Forces aim at being equipped with new opportunities and capabilities in order to carry out its duty in full strength against a large variety of threats, varying from classical threats to asymmetrical ones. "The targets for our land forces are to be realized through 'Forces 2014' project. This project aims to shrink the forces without undermining its combat capabilities. On the contrary, under the plan the efficiency of the force will increase. "Within this period of time the Land Forces will gradually decrease by 20 to 30 percent in terms of number of personnel and forces formations. It will be equipped with modern arms and war devices as the distinct features of this new formation. Thus the battle capability will be given to high-ranking brigades. Moreover with the Combat Zone Management System, the land tactical map will be numerically formed in real-time or close to real-time and a constant tracking will be provided," said Büyükanıt. (The New Anatolian, Evren Değer, 10 August 2006)^[22]

At present, the primary main battle tanks of the Turkish Army are the Leopard 2A4 and the M60T. There are also around 400 Leopard 1 and 750 M60 Patton variants in service (excluding the M60T which were upgraded with the 120 mm MG253 guns), but the Turkish Army retains a large number of older vehicles. More than 2,800 M48 Pattons are still in service (upgraded with the 105 mm M68 guns) though only around 1,300 of these are stored as reserve MBTs,^[23] while the rest are mostly transformed into other types of military vehicles (such as cranes, MBT recovery vehicles and logistical support vehicles) or used as spare parts hulks.

Turkey plans to build a total of 1,000 new MİTÜP Altay MBTs, in four separate batches of 250 units, with the MİTÜP Turkish National Tank Project.^[24] The tanks will be produced by the Turkish firm Otokar, and share some of the systems that are used in the K2 Black Panther main battle tank of South Korea.

Turkey has inked a deal with the US to buy six CH-4 helicopters, or Chinooks, for $400 million. Because of financial constraints, however, the Undersecretariat for the Defense Industry, or SSM, Turkey’s procurement agency, later wanted to buy only six CH-47Fs, five for the Army and one for the Special Forces Command, leaving a decision on the remaining eight platforms for the future. Contract negotiations between the SSM, the U.S. government and Boeing were launched last year.^[25]

Conscription may be changed.

Structure[link]

II (1)

III (1)

V (1)

VI (2)

VII (2)

VIII (2)

IV (3)

IX (3)

Aegean
Army

Turkish Army corps locations (2008)
Key: II (1) - II Corps, 1st Army

The structure of the Turkish Army has historically had two facets: operational and administrative. The operational chain consists of the field fighting formations, and the administrative the arms and service branches - infantry, armour, artillery etc.

Operational organisation[link]

The Turkish Army has since the mid 1960s operated on a corps-division-brigade system, with a varying number of divisions and brigades assigned to a corps. The IISS Military Balance 1966-67 recorded a total strength of 360,000, with 16 infantry divisions (14 NATO assigned), 4 armoured brigades (Zırhlı tugay) with M47 Patton tanks, armoured cavalry regiments, and two parachute battalions.^[26] At some point in the 1960s the Army apparently utilised the Pentomic structure for a period, before adopting the American ROAD divisional organisation.^[16] Back in the early 1970s, there was a 6th Infantry Division based at Istanbul.

The army's 14 armoured brigades are the most powerful brigades in the restructured organisation; each includes two armoured, two mechanised infantry and two self-propelled artillery battalions.^[20] The 17 mechanised brigades each have two armoured, two mechanised and one artillery battalion. The army's nine infantry brigades each have four infantry battalions and one artillery battalion, while the four commando brigades have three commando battalions.

From 1992 the Army began to change from a corps-division-regiment structure to a corps-brigade arrangement,^[20] with divisions remaining on Cyprus and for certain special other cases, such as for NATO's reaction forces. In accordance with NATO’s new strategy in the early 1990s, Turkey agreed to commit forces to NATO’s ACE Rapid Reaction Corps. 'Therefore, the decision was made to create a new division. Thus, the old 1 Inf Div which had been abolished many years ago was reactivated and renamed as 1 TU Mech Inf Div and attached to 4 TU Corps on 30 November 1993.’^[27] This division was later disbanded, and appears to have been replaced within III Corps by the 52nd Armoured Division, formed later on.

The Military Balance, 1994-1995 also lists the following units: the Presidential Guard regiment, an infantry regiment, five border defense regiments (Brigades (?)), and twenty-six border defense battalions. The fate of these independent units under the reorganization remains unclear.

In late 2002 the III Corps, with its headquarters near Istanbul, was certified as one of the six NATO High Readiness Force-Land (HRF-L) headquarters and gained the additional title of the Rapidly Deployable Turkish Corps (RDTC). A year later, Jane's Defense Weekly reported on 9 July 2003 that as part of force restructuring, its four existing armies would be reorganized into a Western Army, in Istanbul, and the Eastern Army would replace 2nd Army in Malatya.^[28] This plan does not appear to have been carried out.

The Army announced plans in mid 2004 to abolish four brigades across Turkey.^{[29][dead link]} The arms and equipment of the brigades closed will be kept in depots. The plan involves the disbandment of:

• The 33rd Mechanized Brigade in Kırklareli on the north-west border with Greece and Bulgaria
• The 7th Mechanized Brigade in Kars/Kağızman near the eastern border with Armenia
• The 10th Infantry Brigade in Van/Erciş on the eastern border with Iran
• The 9th Armoured Brigade in Çankırı in central Anatolia

The IISS and the Turkish Army's website give differing figures as to the number of formations in the Army. The official site gives totals of 9 Army Corps, 1 Infantry Division, 2 Mechanized Infantry Divisions, 1 Armored Division, 1 Training Division, 11 Infantry / Motorized Infantry Brigades, 16 Mechanized Infantry Brigades, 9 Armored Brigades, 5 Para-Commando Brigades, 1 Army Aviation Brigade, 2 Artillery Brigades, 5 Training Brigades and one Humanitarian Aid Brigade.^[30]

The IISS Military Balance 2008 lists the Turkish Land Forces with four Army HQ, 10 corps HQ, 17 armoured brigades, 15 mechanised infantry brigades, two infantry divisions, 11 infantry brigades, 1 Special Force command HQ, five commando brigades, one combat helicopter battalion, four aviation regiments, three aviation battalions (totalling 1 tspt and 2 trng battalions), and four training/artillery brigades.^[31]

Force structure[link]

The Turkish Army is organised into the following commands:^[32] The information below is unconfirmed and may be out of date; it seems likely now that the Training and Doctrine Command controls all the artillery and infantry training brigades.

• Land Forces Command (Turkish: Kara Kuvvetleri Komutanlığı (KKK)) - Ankara
  • 1st Army (Istanbul)
    • II Corps (Gelibolu, Çanakkale)
      • 4th Mechanized Infantry Brigade (Keşan)
      • 8th Mechanized Infantry Brigade (Tekirdağ)
      • 18th Mechanized Infantry Brigade (Çanakkale)
      • 95th Armored Brigade (Malkara)
      • 102nd Artillery Regiment (Uzunköprü)
      • Corps Engineer Combat Regiment (Gelibolu)
    • III Corps (NATO Rapid Deployment Corps, Şişli, Istanbul)
      • 52nd Tactical Armored Division (Hadımköy, Istanbul)
      • 2nd Armored Brigade (Kartal)
      • 66th Mechanized Infantry Brigade (Istanbul)
      • 23rd Tactical Motorized Infantry Division (Hasdal, Istanbul)
        • 6th Motorized Infantry Regiment (Hasdal, Istanbul)
        • 23rd Motorized Infantry Regiment (Samandıra, Istanbul)
        • 47th Motorized Infantry Regiment (Metris, Istanbul)
    • V Corps (Çorlu, Tekirdağ)
      • 1st Armored Brigade (Babaeski)
      • 3rd Armored Brigade (Çerkezköy)
      • 54th Mechanized Infantry Brigade (Edirne)
      • 55th Mechanized Infantry Brigade (Süloğlu)
      • 65th Mechanized Infantry Brigade (Lüleburgaz)
      • Corps Armored Cavalry Battalion (Ulaş)
      • 105th Artillery Regiment (Çorlu)
      • Corps Engineer Combat Regiment (Pınarhisar)
    • 15th Infantry Division (Köseköy, İzmit)
  • 2nd Army (Malatya)
    • VI Corps (Adana)
      • 5th Armored Brigade (Gaziantep)
      • 39th Mechanized Infantry Brigade (İskenderun)
      • 106th Artillery Regiment (Islahiye)
    • VII Corps (Diyarbakır)
      • 3rd Tactical Infantry Division (Yüksekova)^[33]
      • 16th Mechanized Brigade (Diyarbakır)
      • 20th Mechanized Brigade (Şanlıurfa)
      • 70th Mechanized Infantry Brigade (Mardin)^[34]
      • 172nd Armored Brigade (Silopi)
      • 2nd Motorized Infantry Brigade (Lice)
      • 6th Motorized Infantry Brigade (Akçay)
      • 3rd Commando Brigade (Siirt)
      • 107th Artillery Regiment (Siverek)
  • 3rd Army (Erzincan)
    • VIII Corps (Elazığ)
      • 1st Mechanized Infantry Brigade (Doğubeyazıt)
      • 12nd Mechanized Infantry Brigade (Ağrı)
      • 10th Motorized Infantry Brigade (Tatvan)
      • 34th Motorized Infantry Brigade (Patnos)
      • 49th Motorized Infantry Brigade (Bingöl)
      • 51st Motorized Infantry Brigade (Hozat)
      • 4th Commando Brigade (Tunceli)
      • 108th Artillery Regiment (Erciş)
      • 17th Motorized Infantry Brigade (Kiğı)
    • IX Corps (Erzurum)
      • 4th Armored Brigade (Palandöken)
      • 14th Mechanized Infantry Brigade (Kars)
      • 25th Mechanized Infantry Brigade (Ardahan)
      • 9th Motorized Infantry Brigade (Sarıkamış)
      • 48th Motorized Infantry Brigade (Trabzon)
      • 109th Artillery Regiment (Erzurum)
  • Aegean Army (Izmir)
    • Cyprus Turkish Peace Force
    • 57th Artillery Training Brigade (Izmir)
    • 19th Infantry Brigade (Edremit^{[disambiguation needed ]})
    • 11th Motorised Infantry Brigade (Denizli)
    • 3rd Infantry Training Brigade (Antalya)
    • 1st Infantry Training Brigade (Manisa).^[35]
  • Training and Doctrine Command (Ankara)
  • Logistics Command (Ankara)
  • Turkish Military Academy (Ankara)
  • Army Aviation Command (operates the fleet of helicopters and UAVs used by the Turkish Army)
    • General Staff controlled units (Güvercinlik Army Air Base, Ankara)
      • Special Aviation Group Command
      • General Staff Electronic Systems (GES) Aviation Group Command
      • Mapping General Command
      • Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Center Command (Batman Air Base)
    • Army Aviation Command
      • Army Aviation School Command (Güvercinlik Army Air Base)
      • 5th Main Maintenance Center Command
      • 1st Army Aviation Regiment (Güvercinlik Army Air Base)
      • 2nd Army Aviation Regiment (Malatya Erhaç Airport)
      • 3rd Army Aviation Regiment (Gaziemir Air Base, Izmir)
      • 4th Army Aviation Regiment (Samandıra Army Air Base, Istanbul)
      • 7th Army Aviation Group Command (Diyarbakır Air Base)
      • Northern Cyprus Turkish Army Aviation Unit Command (Karter Air Base, Pınarbaşı)^[36]

Administrative branches[link]

See also[link]

• List of Commanders of the Turkish Land Forces

Footnotes[link]

References[link]