At first, special units are to be deployed to border regions where terror is intense. These units will comprise professional soldiers who will receive a high salary and will be granted a sum in compensation at the end of their service. All soldiers will serve on a voluntary basis and will receive intense and challenging training for several months. They will fight terror using the methods militants in the mountains use. The special units will not act according to a coordinated army mentality but rather will launch surgical strikes according to incoming intelligence. They will remain in the mountains for a long period of time. They will eat and sleep there. In addition to defense, they will also pursue terrorists.
In this way, Turkey will shift from the defensive to the offensive in counterterrorism. New personnel will not be recruited for these units. Instead, specialists in the TSK will be used. The special unit’s soldiers will be between 25 and 32 years of age. The soldiers will receive a large sum in compensation for every year they work. In this way, they will be able to have a comfortable living once their service ends.
On the other hand, it is expected to take some time for the army to become professional. Currently, the TSK is a force that consists of 700,000 people. Around 200,000 of them are commissioned and noncommissioned officers. Retired Col. Mesut Ülker noted that professionalization would take time and that the number of commissioned and noncommissioned officers in the army would decline in the process. According to Ülker, the TSK will withdraw completely from domestic security matters over a certain period and return to its essential duty, national defense. He noted that professionalizing the army would cause a decline in the number of personnel but an increase in its effectiveness and strike power.
