Professional units should serve along border, says Erdoğan

Speaking at a meeting of his Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) provincial branch leaders, he explained the government's plans to professionalize those army units engaged in counterterrorism at the border with northern Iraq, which is used by the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as a home base and a launching pad for attacks directed at Turkish military targets in the East and Southeast. “We have come a long way in this respect. Currently, there is a significant number of professional military personnel in the region,” he said. Erdoğan said the ultimate purpose in this plan was to have units in the area comprise professional soldiers only.

“It will be most efficient to conduct this fight with personnel who know the conditions of the terrain and who are able to respond to tactical moves of the terrorist organization to get the best results with the fewest losses.” He said training such personnel advanced greatly under the AK Party government.

The prime minister also said recent PKK attacks had shown the importance of employing professional units in the fight against terrorism. “These are not a separate or special military. There are such stories in the press. We are not setting up a special army. These will be special border units,” he said. Erdoğan said these specialized soldiers will serve in the region for a period of five years or more as part of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK).

“It is absolutely necessary that security squads working in the rural and urban areas are equipped very differently.” He said the TSK, the Ministry of Defense, the government, the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and the president of the Supreme Council of Counterterrorism debate the details of these professional units. “After that is done, we will take our steps. We will hopefully put this plan to work within the year,” he said.

Who is to take control?

The government and General Staff are at odds over who should take control of the professional military brigades that will be deployed along the border to ensure security.

The AK Party government is pushing for the newly established Undersecretariat of Public Security to be the authority so as not to make the same mistakes as were made in the 1990s in the fight against terrorism, but the General Staff opposes this idea, saying it would cause confusion in the command structure.

Erdoğan secured full support for combating terrorism from all political party leaders he met with last week. Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Democratic Left Party (DSP) leader Masum Türker, Felicity Party (SP) leader Numan Kurtulmuş and Grand Unity Party (BBP) leader Yalçın Topçu all said they will back fighting terrorist groups with a professional army, as is the case in countries such as Spain and the UK.

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, whom Erdoğan said he did not feel the need to meet with, is also in favor of the idea of a professional army, but is also concerned that it may be perceived as creating an alternative army to the TSK and therefore insists naming it a “special unit.” The only political party opposed to the formation of a professional army is the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which argues that such a move would lead to the repetition of the same mistakes special operation units made in the 1990s in the eastern and southeastern regions of the country.

A mixed model

Erdoğan maintains that to avoid making those same mistakes again requires that “the meetings between all institutions continue.” Following his meeting with Kılıçdaroğlu, he said they could not yet decide whether to make the professional army subordinate to the General Staff or to the National Police Department.

In their meeting, Kılıçdaroğlu told Erdoğan that the authority to take charge of the professional army was crucial. What Erdoğan has in mind is a rather mixed model like the one practiced for the gendarmerie and which would make the professional army subordinate to the General Staff in terms of promotions but also make it operate under the Undersecretariat of Public Security coordination. As part of Erdoğan’s strategy, 150 new military outposts will be built along the southeastern and eastern borders of the country. The gendarmerie is subordinate to the Interior Ministry but promotions of all military personnel there are done by the General Staff.

The government denies allegations that the professional army will be an alternative force to TSK and also suggests that the proposed status will not cause a friction within the command structure. What the Erdoğan government is trying to do by placing the Undersecretariat of Public Security there is to sustain transparency and accountability in the fight against terrorism.

According to the government’s plan, soldiers in the professional army will enlist on five-year contracts and normally serve until the age of 32 at most. However, those drafted when they are 25 years old could also serve for two consecutive contract terms.