Çevik Bir is a retired Turkish army general. He was a member of the Turkish General Staff in the 1990s. He took a major part in several important international missions in the Middle East and North Africa. He was born in Buca, Izmir Province, in 1939 and is married with one child.
The Turkish Armed Forces are the military forces of the Republic of Turkey. The Turkish Armed Forces consist of the General Staff, the Land Forces, the Naval Forces and the Air Forces. The Chief of the General Staff is the Commander of the Armed Forces. In wartime, the Chief of the General Staff acts as the Commander-in-Chief on behalf of the President, who represents the Supreme Military Command of the TAF on behalf of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Coordinating the military relations of the TAF with other NATO member states and friendly states is the responsibility of the General Staff.
The General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces is the highest staff organization in the Turkish Armed Forces.
The Turkish Land Forces, or Turkish Army, is the main branch of the Turkish Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The army was formed on November 8, 1920, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Significant campaigns since the foundation of the army include suppression of rebellions in Turkish Kurdistan from the 1920s to the present day, combat in the Korean War, the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus and the current Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War, as well as its NATO alliance against the USSR during the Cold War. The army holds the preeminent place within the armed forces. It is customary for the Chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces to have been the Commander of the Turkish Land Forces prior to his appointment as Turkey's senior ranking officer.
Counter-Guerrilla is an alleged Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, a clandestine stay-behind anti-communist initiative backed by the United States as an expression of the Truman Doctrine. The founding goal of the operation was to erect a stay-behind guerrilla force to undermine a possible Soviet occupation. The goal was soon expanded to subverting communism in Turkey.
Salih Omurtak was a Turkish general and the fourth Chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces.
Hüseyin Kıvrıkoğlu is a retired Turkish general who was the 23rd commander of the Turkish Armed Forces and on August 30, 1998, became Chief of the Turkish General Staff for a four-year term.
The Special Forces Command is a corps of the Turkish Armed Forces, initially established as a brigade in 14 April 1992, operating directly under the Turkish General Staff. According to the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) dress code, the ÖKK, also known as the Bordo Bereliler, are noteworthy for their distinctive maroon berets. Their task is to carry out special operations that exceed the capabilities of other military units.
Mürted Airfield Command (Turkish: Mürted Hava Meydan Komutanlığı, formerly Mürted Air Base, Mürted Hava Üssü, Akıncı Air Base, Akıncı Hava Üssü, was an air base of the Turkish Air Force located 35 km northwest of Ankara, Turkey. During the July 2016 coup d'état attempt the air base was used by pro-coup soldiers, and government forces bombed runway thresholds to prevent pro-coup forces from landing or taking off. Following the failed coup, Akıncı Air Base was redesignated with its former name, Mürted, and it was suggested the facility be converted to a memorial or a park.
The Chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces is the chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces. He is appointed by the President of Turkey, who is the commander-in-chief. The position dates to the period of the Government of the Grand National Assembly and the Turkish War of Independence. The post has its own rank insignia, which is the OF-9 rank of the Chief of Staff's personal service branch surrounded by laurel wreaths. In practice, the position has always been held by a Turkish Land Forces officer.
İsmail Hakkı Karadayı was a Turkish general, who became the 35th Commander of the Turkish Land Forces on 30 August 1993. He served between 1994 and 1998 as the 22nd Chief of the Turkish General Staff for a four-year term and was succeeded by General Hüseyin Kıvrıkoğlu. On 13 April 2018, a Turkish court sentenced him to life imprisonment for his role in the 1997 Turkish military memorandum. During his General Staff, the Turkish army carried out Operation Steel, Dawn and Hammer against the PKK in Northern Iraq.
Gölcük Naval Base is the main base of the Turkish Navy on the east coast of the Sea of Marmara in Gölcük, Kocaeli. It is the principal base for logistic support with various facilities stretched over 1,800 acres (7.3 km2) of land.
Ragıp Gümüşpala was the 11th Chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces and founder of the Justice Party in 1961. He died shortly afterwards, on 6 June 1964, in Istanbul.
General Necdet Özel is a Turkish Army general, who served as the 28th Chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces. He also served as the commander of the Turkish Land Forces. General Necdet Özel is only the second in this position not to have NATO experience.
The October 2011 Çukurca attacks are the PKK's attacks targeting Turkish Armed Forces units in Hakkâri's Çukurca district on October 19, 2011. After midnight, 200 PKK members opened fire on police and gendarmerie buildings and security points in the district center with heavy weapons, resulting in 24 Turkish soldiers killed and 18 wounded. Between 21 and 23 PKK militants were killed in the conflict, and around 250-270 PKK militants were killed in the post-conflict operations, and 210 were injured.
On 15 July 2016, a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces, organized as the Peace at Home Council, attempted a coup d'état against state institutions, including the government and president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. They attempted to seize control of several places in Ankara, Istanbul, Marmaris and elsewhere, such as the Asian side entrance of the Bosphorus Bridge, but failed to do so after forces and civilians loyal to the state defeated them. The Council cited an erosion of secularism, elimination of democratic rule, disregard for human rights, and Turkey's loss of credibility in the international arena as reasons for the coup. The government said it had evidence the coup leaders were linked to the Gülen movement, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the Republic of Turkey and led by Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish businessman and a well-known Islamic scholar who lives in exile in Pennsylvania. The Turkish government alleged that Gülen was behind the coup and that the United States was harboring him. Events surrounding the coup attempt and the purges in its aftermath reflect a complex power struggle between Islamist elites in Turkey.
Ümit Dündar is a Turkish general who was temporarily Chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces while Hulusi Akar was being held hostage by coup forces during the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt.
On December 17, 2016, a suspected car bombing in Kayseri, Turkey killed 15 soldiers aboard a bus and wounded at least 55 others. According to the Daily Sabah newspaper, the soldiers — all low-ranking privates and non-commissioned officers — had been given permission for leave from the commando headquarters in the city. The explosion comes a week after 44 people were killed in a double bombing in Istanbul after a football match.
Yaşar Güler is a Turkish general who currently serves as the Minister of National Defense. He previously served as the 30th Chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces from 2018 to 2023.
Abidin Ünal is a retired Turkish Air Force general and commander of the Turkish Air Force. During his tenure, he was a Senior Member of the NATO Technology and Research Organization General Assembly.
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