The Special Warfare Department (SWD, ) was the

special forces Special forces or special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...

unit of the

Turkish Army The Turkish Land Forces () is the main branch of the Turkish Armed Forces responsible for Army, land-based military operations. The army was formed on November 8, 1920, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Significant campaigns since the ...

. Founded in 1952, it was formed out of the Army's Tactical Mobilisation Group (, STK). It was disbanded in 1992, with responsibility for special operations then taken over by the new Special Forces Command. Former members include

Korkut Eken Korkut Eken (born 1945) is a former Turkish military officer and National Intelligence Organization (MİT) agent. He became involved in the Susurluk scandal in Turkey after some of his subordinates, notably Ayhan Çarkın, were convicted of extraj ...

History

The SWD were also funded and trained by the USA. During the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

the SWD cooperated closely with the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

. The SWD encouraged and protected the Turkish

Grey Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though grey ...

when they unleashed waves of bomb attacks and shootings that killed thousands of people, including students, lawyers, journalists, public officials, labor organizers,

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

, and others, during the 1970s political violence. The SWD established the TMT in

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

in 1958 to counter the

EOKA The Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston (EOKA ; ) was a Greek Cypriot nationalist guerrilla organization that fought a campaign for the end of Cyprus#Cyprus under the British Empire, British rule in Cyprus, and for enosis, eventual union with K ...

and to force partition of the island, and supported it logistically and militarily. Arms were transferred from Turkey to support TMT, but when the arms transfer was blocked in international waters, the SWD contracted arms smugglers for the task. The SWD was also involved in the

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 Cy ...

in 1974, under the command of Sabri Yirmibeşoğlu. In 2010 Yirmibeşoğlu told television news channel

Habertürk TV Habertürk TV is a Turkish nationwide TV channel established in 2001 by journalist Ufuk Güldemir. Since 2007, it has been owned by the Ciner Media Group. In 2009, Ciner created the ''Habertürk'' newspaper, drawing on Habertürk TV's brand. ...

that Turkey burned a

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

during the

Cypriot intercommunal violence Several distinct periods of Cypriot intercommunal violence involving the two main ethnic communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, marked mid-20th century Cyprus. These included the Cyprus Emergency of 1955–59 during British rule, the ...

in order to foster civil resistance against Greeks on the island, and that their tactics included

false flag A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misrep ...

acts, engaging in acts of sabotage made to look as if they were carried out by the enemy.

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician a ...

, 24 September 2010
Turkey burned mosque during Cyprus conflict, general says
/ref>

References

Special forces of Turkey Military counterterrorist organizations False flag operations Turkish invasion of Cyprus Cyprus dispute Grey Wolves (organization) Political violence in Turkey (1976–1980) State-sponsored terrorism Neo-fascism in Turkey Anti-communism in Turkey {{mil-unit-stub Turkish nationalist organizations Operation Gladio

History

See also

References