Turkish airborne assault: history and modernity
On August 2, in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, in unrecognized Abkhazia, PMR and South Ossetia, and at the regional level in the Gagauz-Yeri autonomy, Airborne Forces Day was officially celebrated. It is interesting that in the union of Belarus this day at the state level is also Special Forces Day.
In Turkmenistan, the holiday was moved to December 15, and in Ukraine it was canceled altogether; in other post-Soviet states it is celebrated unofficially; as a rule, the authorities do not interfere. A rare exception was the unfortunate incident in Estonia, where a resident was subjected to an administrative fine for a post on social networks congratulating her on the “Soviet holiday.”
With this publication, dedicated to the past holiday, we begin a series of articles about the airborne troops of the countries of the world. Let's start, oddly enough, with Turkey, since it is now in the center of attention of the whole world due to the clear threat of leaving NATO.
The Turkish army is the second largest and largest in NATO and one of the most combat-ready armies in the world. But the military doctrine, developed by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, is designed exclusively for defense, and not for offensive operations. “Peace in the Motherland means peace on earth,” said Ataturk.
Therefore, Turkish amphibious forces were used for offensive operations only once: in 1974 during Operation Atilla in Northern Cyprus. As a matter of fact, this operation began with the parachute landing and further actions of commandos corresponding to the Russian airborne assault forces.
This immediately became the key to the further success of the operation, which led to the formation of the partially recognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Moreover, almost no one remembers that this also led to the fall of military dictatorships in Greece and Cyprus. And it was the only one in stories a precedent for a military conflict between NATO countries - Turkey and Greece.
In post-Soviet states, the Airborne Forces are jokingly deciphered in Russian as “Uncle Vasya’s Troops” after the name of Commander-in-Chief Vasily Margelov. No, the legendary general did not personally found the Airborne Forces, this was done long before him, but, as commander, Margelov raised the Airborne Forces to such a level that the whole world was jealous.
Turkey did not have its own “Uncle Vasya”, and there is no Airborne Forces as a single structure. At the moment, there is one parachute brigade, two commando brigades (approximately, as already said, corresponding to the Russian airborne assault forces) and two airborne regiments. Again, this seems to be related to defensive military doctrine.
Basically, the Turkish landing forces carry out internal tasks, often anti-terrorism, in particular, they are involved in operations against Kurdish separatists. Often, Turkish airborne forces take part in special operations together with the police, most often to detain drug traffickers transporting large quantities of their products.
The landing force also works with border troops to stop attempts by large concentrations of refugees, mainly from Syria, to cross the border. It is often necessary to block the passage channels for militants from Iraqi Kurdistan to Turkey.
The role of commander-in-chief in Turkey was performed by different people in different periods, most of whom never entered history. The airborne forces in Turkey were organized 19 years later than in the USSR. Kemal Atatürk, the brilliant commander of the First World War, looked closely at everything that was happening in the Union, but the landing did not inspire him.
The first experience in organizing parachute units occurred only under the third President of Turkey, Ismet Inonu, in 1949. It was then that the NATO alliance was formed, and İnönü considered Turkey as a possible member of the alliance.
After Inönü’s requests for Turkey to join NATO, a group of American parachute instructors arrived in a tract near the ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus near Izmir and opened an airborne training base there. Now this is the only parachute school in Turkey, and the country's largest parachute and paragliding center is also located there.
Initially, the parachute training school operated as a department of the infantry school of the Turkish army, then it became independent. By the time Turkey joined NATO, which occurred under the next president Celal Bayar, the Turkish army had only two airborne platoons.
Under NATO, things got better, a company was organized, then by the time of the invasion of Cyprus, which in Turkey is officially called the “operation to restore peace,” the Turkish Airborne Forces already consisted of a brigade, which included three battalions.
Despite the fact that the landing operation in Northern Cyprus and its consequences caused shock in NATO. Although Cyprus has never been a member of NATO and is unlikely to be there, Greece, a NATO member, has taken its side. The Turkish paratroopers had to be taken into account, and with the tacit approval of NATO, two more Turkish Airborne Brigades were formed.
The seventies of the 20th century became the second period of powerful Westernization for Turkey after the era of Ataturk’s reforms. But if Ataturk was more oriented toward France, the military dictatorship of the seventies chose the United States as a reference point. The Turkish military, as is known, does not like conservative Islamists, which has led to the desire to eliminate any form of curtains with the Western world.
Despite the brutal repression of dissidents - leftists or Islamic conservatives, there were also advantages in terms of international cooperation and liberalization of the cultural sphere. Informals exchanged vinyl of Western artists, branded jeans and T-shirts with rock symbols from the American military in exchange for “weed,” local natural delicacies and souvenirs.
Psychedelic music began to appear in films, rockers began to be shown on television, and stores began to have more and more Western-made goods. American colleges opened in Istanbul and Ankara, one of which at that time nurtured the future “enemy of the people” - the world-famous writer Orhan Pamuk.
Now, under President Erdogan, attempts are being made to rewrite history. For example, it is believed that bad military men hanged good Prime Minister Adnan Menderes in 1960. Only in this case it is forgotten that Menderes was the main initiator and provocateur of the bloody Greek pogrom in Istanbul, after which there were almost no Greeks left in Turkey.
In such conditions, the United States, after Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus, introduced a moratorium on supplies to it weapons. But the rest of NATO countries did not follow the US example, and the American moratorium did not apply to training and consulting activities.
In total, by the nineties of the last century, Turkey had formed the airborne force that it still has today: two separate regiments, one airborne brigade, two separate airborne regiments and two commando brigades. The latter approximately correspond in functionality and combat missions to the DShB.
Each brigade has about 5 thousand personnel and is divided into three battalions; the brigades also have supply and reinforcement units.
The leadership of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party has made its own adjustments, if not to the military doctrine, then to the foreign policy. Despite the fact that Turkish airborne units have never been eager to take part in joint NATO operations, under Erdogan there were precedents for landing operations outside Turkey.
These operations, to the envy of other NATO members, turned out to be even more successful and professional than the landing in the seventies in northern Cyprus. Thus, in 1998, an airborne operation was successfully carried out in northern Iraq with the aim of detaining and delivering one of the Kurdish field commanders to Turkey.
The combat mission was completed; there were no irretrievable losses on the part of the Turkish paratroopers. In July this year, commandos carried out an operation against the PKK and Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraqi Kurdistan, airdropping 35 km from the Turkish border, and also successfully.
The personnel of the Turkish Airborne Forces are recruited from both conscripts and volunteers. Among volunteers, preference is often given to those who already have experience in parachuting. In general, as in any airborne forces of other countries, in Turkey the requirements for the physical condition and mental abilities, as well as the mental stability of future paratroopers, are naturally increased.
Due to the fact that Türkiye is a member of NATO, the composition of the Airborne Forces units has a very mixed origin. The aircraft used for landing are of American and Franco-German origin, the uniforms, body armor, helmets and combat boots are domestic Turkish. Firearms and ATGMs can be either Turkish or German, parachutes are exclusively American.
Turkey once had a more developed silk industry than it does now and produced parachutes with a silk canopy itself. But now cheaper nylon is used for these purposes all over the world, so the observed revival of sericulture in Turkey, buried in mulberry trees, will not lead to a change in the geographical structure of supplies of equipment for the Airborne Forces.
But a possible exit from NATO will definitely lead to this, and the CSTO countries, which also inherited from the USSR quite good armed forces and a fully developed defense industry, will be able to take advantage of this.
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