İsmail Metin Temel (12 March 1958,

Adana Adana is a large city in southern Turkey. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the northeastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the administrative seat of the Adana Province, Adana province, and has a population of 1 81 ...

) is a Turkish Second Army Command former commander. He was the commander of Turkish forces in Syria from 2016 to 2018.

Biography

İsmail Metin Temel was born in 1958 in

. His family settled in

in the 1970s. He joined 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 ...

in 1981. In 2012, Temel was appointed Commander of the 3rd Tactical Infantry Division/Yuksekova Hakkari. In 2016, General Temel, by now Commander of the Van Gendarmerie Public Security Corps, was appointed Commander of the Second Army.

Military career

Temel has commanded two campaigns. The first was

Operation Euphrates Shield Operation Euphrates Shield () was an offensive by the Turkish Armed Forces and the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army, which led to the Turkish occupation of northern Syria. Operations were carried out in the region between the Euphrates river to th ...

, in which he and Lt. Gen. Zekai Aksakallı began the

Turkish occupation of northern Syria The Turkish Armed Forces and its ally the Syrian National Army have Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War, occupied areas of northern Syria since August 2016, during the Syrian civil war. Though these areas nominally acknowledge a governm ...

. His second campaign, the

Turkish military operation in Afrin Operation Olive Branch () was an invasion by the Turkish Armed Forces and Syrian National Army (SNA) in the Kurdish-majority Afrin District of northwest Syria, against the People's Protection Units (YPG) of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). ...

, came amid growing tensions between the Turkish and American governments over the latter's support of the

Syrian Democratic Forces The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is a Kurds in Syria, Kurdish-led coalition of U.S.-backed Left-wing politics, left-wing ethnic militias and rebel groups, and serves as the official military wing of the Democratic Autonomous Administration ...

(SDF). The SDF includes the

People's Protection Units The People's Defense Units (YPG), also called People's Protection Units, is a libertarian socialist US-backed Kurds in Syria, Kurdish militant group in Syria and the primary component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The YPG mostl ...

(YPG), which the Turkish government describes as a branch of the

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, isDespite the PKK's 12th Congress announcing plans for total organisational dissolution, the PKK has not yet been dissolved de facto or de jure. a Kurds, Kurdish militant political organization and armed ...

(PKK). In particular, the Turkish state objected to announced plans by the US to train and equip a 30,000-strong Syrian Border Security Force, which it claimed posed a direct threat to their security. On 31 December 2018, Temel was appointed to the

General Staff A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, Enlisted rank, enlisted, and civilian staff who serve the commanding officer, commander of a ...

's Directorate of Audit and Evaluation, by presidential decree.
Son dakika... General atamaları Resmi Gazete'de yayımlandı

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Temel, Ismail Metin 1958 births Commanders of the Second Army of Turkey People from Adana Living people Turkish Army generals