Police Special Operation Department

Polis Özel Harekât Dairesi
Active 1983[1] - present.
Country Turkey Turkey
Branch General Directorate of Security
Type Special forces
Role Domestic Counter-Terrorism and Law Enforcement
Size Varies
Part of Respective municipality-level police departments
Commanders
Current
commander
Turan Aksoy
Police Special Operation Team personnel on a deployment at Afghanistan.

Police Special Operations Department (Turkish: Polis Özel Harekât Dairesi) or Police Special Action[2] (Turkish: Polis Özel Harekât) shortly as PÖH is the special response unit of the General Directorate of Security.

History

Founded in 1982 as "Special Action Office" (Turkish: Özel Harekat Şube Müdürlüğü), under the command of Department of Public Security, to prevent armed acts of terrorist organizations residential area or in rural areas, to rescue hostages in places like aircraft, land vehicles, ships, subways, trains, and in enclosed spaces like buildings, to ensure the safety in cities and in civil aviation airports with special skills, modern weapons, ammunition, vehicles, equipment, tactics and techniques. In bigger cities like Ankara, İstanbul and İzmir "Special Operations Group Authorities "(Turkish: Özel Harekat Grup Amirlikleri) are organized in the same year. As a result of changing conditions, in 1987, office transrred to Anti-Terrorism and Operations Department under the name of "Special Action Branch" (Turkish: Özel Harekat Şubesi). In 1993, branch promoted to a department, and got its current structuring.[3]

İbrahim Şahin was head of the Department until forced to resign in 1996 over the Susurluk scandal. Ayhan Çarkın was a notable member of the department in the 1990s.

Training

To qualify for PÖH, an applicant must:

After 16 weeks of training, the applicant will get a certificate which officially names him as an operative of PÖH.[4]

Also there is a training simulation called TAKSİS being conducted by TÜBİTAK.[5]

Tactics

Unit uses automatic and special weapons and rapid deployment tactics for exceptional circumstances, such as bank robberies, kidnappings, hostage rescues, etc. The nature of the unit is quite like the American SWAT or the German GSG 9, mostly specialises in counter-terrorism (CT) operations against forces and able to take operations on many environments including buses and planes.

Equipment

Handguns

Shotguns

Submachine guns

Sniper Rifles

Assault Rifles

Machine Guns

Vehicles

Sources

  1. Tuncay Özkan, Operasyon, Doğan Kitapçılık, 2000, p. 36.
  2. Joost Jongerden, The Settlement Issue in Turkey and the Kurds: An Analysis of Spatial Policies, Modernity and War, Brill, 2007, p. 70.
  3. "EGM - Özel Harekat Daire Başkanlığı". Retrieved 11 May 2015.
  4. "Polis Özel Harekat Temel Eğitim Paketi". Retrieved 11 May 2015.
  5. "TAKSİS - Taktik Eğitim Sistemi". Retrieved 11 May 2015.
  6. "American Rifleman - Akdal MKA 1919 Shotgun". Retrieved 11 May 2015.
  7. POLiS Özel Harekat Timi. YouTube. 11 April 2007. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
  8. http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/7451/85925487ae5.jpg
  9. "Steyr SSG 08". Retrieved 11 May 2015.
  10. "Özel harekâta özel silah - Şanliurfa Haberleri". Şanliurfa Haberleri. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
  11. http://www.camoluk.gov.tr/ortak_icerik/camoluk/DSCF4053.JPG


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