Semih Sancar (1911 – 8 December 1984) was

Chief of the Turkish General Staff , body = , flag = Standard of General staff of Turkish Armed Forces.svg , flagsize = 125px , flagcaption = Flag of the Chief of the General Staff , insignia = Turkey-army-OF-9.svg , insigniasize = 50px , insigniacaption = Shoulder insigni ...

from 1973 to 1978, a period including the 1974

Turkish invasion of Cyprus The Turkish invasion of Cyprus began on 20 July 1974 and progressed in two phases over the following month. Taking place upon a background of Cypriot intercommunal violence, intercommunal violence between Greek Cypriots, Greek and Turkish ...

. He was previously Commander of the Turkish Land Forces (1972–1973) and General Commander of the Turkish Gendarmerie (1969–1970). He was made a brigadier general in 1960, Major-General in 1963, lieutenant general in 1964 and was promoted to the rank of General in 1969. Commanded 4th Division as a brigadier general, also serving as Joint Chiefs of Staff Department and General Staff Operations Department, War Academies Commander attorney; with the rank of major general, 5th Corps Commander attorney and Land Forces Operations Staff Yarbaşkanlıg As a lieutenant general, in the Army Education Corps Command and Commander 9th Corps. Gen. rank in the August 29, 1969 - Gendarmerie General Command to August 29, 1970; from 1970 until August 28, 1972 commanded 2 Army Command. On August 28, 1972 he was appointed Commander of the Turkish Land Forces. On 6 March 1973, General Sancar was appointed as the 16th Chief of the General Staff and commanded the

Turkish Armed Forces The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF; tr, Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri, TSK) are the military forces of the Republic of Turkey. Turkish Armed Forces consist of the General Staff, the Land Forces, the Naval Forces and the Air Forces. The current Chi ...

during Cyprus War. At the request of

Special Warfare Department The Special Warfare Department (SWD, tr, Özel Harp Dairesi (ÖHD)) was the special forces unit of the Turkish Army. Founded in 1965, it was formed out of the Army's Tactical Mobilisation Group ( tr, Seferberlik Taktik Kurulu, STK). It was disba ...

head General Kemal Yamak, Sancar, then the Chief of General Staff, asked

Bülent Ecevit Mustafa Bülent Ecevit (; 28 May 1925 – 5 November 2006) was a Turkish politician, statesman, poet, writer, scholar, and journalist, who served as the Prime Minister of Turkey four times between 1974 and 2002. He served as prime minister in ...

for a

slush fund A slush fund is a fund or account that is not properly accounted, such as money used for corrupt or illegal purposes, especially in the political sphere. Such funds may be kept hidden and maintained separately from money that is used for legitim ...

of 1 million dollars to support the

Counter-Guerrilla Counter-Guerrilla ( tr, Kontrgerilla) is the 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 ere ...

programme. It was at that point Ecevit learned of its existence, and demanded a briefing.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sancar, Semih 1911 births 1984 deaths People from Erzurum Turkish Army generals Commanders of the Turkish Land Forces Chiefs of the Turkish General Staff Commanders of the Second Army of Turkey