Jandarma: The Turkish Gendarmerie of 276,000 men in Erdogan’s service

For those who are aware of the “hybrid war” conditions prevailing on our land borders in the Evros region, especially after the crisis at the end of February – beginning of March 2020 and the attempted invasion of thousands of irregular immigrants into Greek territorythe revelations about the action of the Turkish Military Police (pp. “Jandarma” in Turkish).

As it became known from the Greek Authorities, the 38 migrants who were rescued in the area of ​​Evrosallegedly arrived in the area in Turkish Gendarmerie vans, while traffickers were waiting for them there, who transported them in inflatable boats and abandoned them on a river island.

They allegedly received instructions to contact the Greek side (s. with NGOs) and assurances that they would be rescued and therefore would find themselves on Greek soil.

In essence, they confirmed what our border guards know first hand. That the “Jandarma” officers act as his “praetorians”. Recep Tayyip Erdoganserving his plans to instrumentalize the refugee-immigrant situation at the expense of Greece.

The dark role of ‘Jandarma’

As was clearly demonstrated in the failed one coup attempt in July 2016, Turkish Gendarmerie officers are completely loyal to the “Sultan”, having earned the title of his “praetorians”.

It is an armed force of about 276,000 men, with military training and structure, which operates independently of the Turkish armed forces and essentially answers only to Erdogan who took care of its upgrade. It is no coincidence that the political head of the “Jandarma” is the Minister of the Interior, Suleyman Soylu, one of the most loyal associates of the Turkish president.

The Gendarmerie has its roots in the Ottoman Empire (p.s. hence the weakness displayed by the “Sultan”) where there was a law enforcement organization called “Subasi”.

In modern times, in 1930 the Gendarmerie Organization was founded, while in 1956 it was transformed into a General Directorate and its upgrading began, until we arrived in the year 2022 to have approximately 1,500 armored vehicles and more than 50 helicopters for its missions. Officially, its tasks are to maintain public order in areas that do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Police (including mainly in the rural areas of Turkey), to ensure internal security and to control the borders.

With equipment made in Turkey

In practice, of course, what it seems is that constitutes the “long arm” of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, even undertaking military operations outside the borders (pp. in Syria against the Kurds). The head of the armed forces is General Arif Cetin, who was appointed by the Turkish president after a failed coup attempt in July 2016. General Cetin is accountable only to Soylu and Erdogan and is considered one of the most powerful figures in the neighboring country.

Finally, it is worth noting that a large part of the armament of the “Jandarma” is of Turkish manufacture and includes – as we mentioned above – from armored vehicles (such as Kobra and Kipri) to attack helicopters (the T-129 ATAK), but also a number of unmanned aerial vehicles (such as the Bayraktar TB2).