Turkey's Revolutionary Guards? In a laconic announcement, the president announced the establishment of "forces ready for reinforcements" • Senior researcher: "They will be deployed directly from the president's house"
Turkish President Erdogan
Photo:
Reuters
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced last Friday the establishment of "Reinforced Forces", a new security force whose purpose is not really clear. Unlike previous steps by the Turkish president, this move has been announced - but for some reason not with much fanfare and a very laconic announcement.
According to the announcement, the body is subordinate to the Istanbul Police Commissioners and "Merkez". This is a vague word choice, possibly intentionally, because its meaning is "center" - the capital Ankara. Today, the presidential regime led by Erdogan rules Turkey, the only option is himself. The president of Turkey has set up a security body for himself. This is not the first change in the structure of the Turkish security forces carried out by the Erdogan regime. Before setting up "reinforcements ready for reinforcements", about a year and a half ago, the administration made a traditional change to the "neighborhood guards". They are armed and trained by the Turkish army.
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Photo: Reuters
Miraculously, only today (Sunday) did the first significant political attack arrive. "Erdogan is creating more forces to serve a one-man system," the pro-Kurdish Democratic People's Party (HDP) responded as part of what leaves no room for imagination other than a dictatorship warning, "Erdogan's move is dangerous and must be answered through parliament."
"This new force will probably only be used in Istanbul," Dr. Chai Eitan Cohen Inrojek, a modern Turkish researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and Tel Aviv University, tells Israel Today. He said, "This force will be subordinated to the police, but it will also be possible to use it directly from the president's house." Regarding the Democratic People's Party's threat to turn to parliament, Dr. Cohen Inrojek does not see the move as such an impact. "In parliament nothing will change and even if they turn to the Constitutional Court - these are the same scholars who approved turning Aya Sophia into a mosque," the senior researcher noted.