Özel Kuvvetler Komutanlığı (OKK)
is at Turkish Special Forces Command was established in 1992 at the brigade level,
directly under the General Staff.
They are most Turkish elite unit is known as Bordo Bereliler (Maroon Berets),
a special forces unit that was founded by Turkish officers.
It is an association of Turkish Armed Forces,
consisting of elite soldiers of different classes and ranks,
trained to serve in all terrain and climate conditions
against the elimination of internal and external threats.
Its motto is :
The difficult we do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer.
Their task is to carry out special operations that exceed the capabilities of other military units.
The Bordo Bereliler may be considered as the Turkish counterpart
of the US Army Special Forces (Green Berets).
Today,
members of Bordo Bereliler are tasked with various objectives,
but as ordinary, they are used for elimination of internal and external enemies,
VIP protection and escort of the VIP persons,
in a case of war,
preparation, and training of the local population for resistance.
One of the main tasks of the unit is the fight against Kurdish separatists,
but accurate information is never revealed to the public.
The combatant size of the Bordo Bereliler is not greater than 500.
Within the Bordo Bereliler,
there is a more specialized unit with only 100 members.
Although the name of the unit is Combat Search and Rescue
(Muharebe Arama Kurtarma - M.A.K.),
its duties focus more on unconventional warfare and military intelligence.
No further information is available on MAK except for the fact that it is thought
to be established and organized like its US counterpart Delta Force.
It also differs from the Bordo Bereliler in that its members are selected not only from the Army,
but also from the other two main forces, Navy and Air Force.
Throughout history,
the Bordo Bereliler took part in many operations,
mostly covert and secretive.
They took part in the accomplishment of several missions.
Capture of Abdullah Ocalan,
the Chief of the terrorist PKK organization,
in Kenya and of Semdin Sakik,
PKK's second chief in charge were carried out by the Bordo Bereliler.
The Bordo Bereliler gained vast amount of experience in search and destroy type missions,
especially in rural areas and caves in South-East Turkey during its years long campaign against the PKK.
The Bordo Bereliler has also been undertaking missions in Bosnia,
Kosovo,
Albania,
Afghanistan and North Iraq.
A few Bordo Bereliler teams were sent to Afghanistan during Operation Enduring
Freedom and trained the new recruits of the newly-established regular Afghan Army.
With this action,
they drew attention to their dedication and work.
The Bordo Bereliler candidates undergo training and education in three categories divided into national,
international, and special.
These three categories include 47 different areas.
The training of the candidate takes an average of 3-4 years
to complete before he becomes a full member of the Bordo Bereliler.
National Training which develops basic skills lasts for 72 weeks
while the length of training abroad ranges 10-52 weeks and provides
specialized training in collaboration with other specialized units.
The Bordo Bereliler operators are highly trained special forces.
The skills of the unit operators were recognized many times on a national level,
but they usually send teams to the competition where other world’s special forces took part.
During 2004 and 2005,
they took first place in a competition held in Germany.
They have been deployed in various operations such as Operation Northern Iraq in 1992,
Turkish army winter Campaign of 1994–95,
Operation Steel in1995,
Operation Hammer and Operation Dawn in 1997,
Operation Sun 2008,
Operation Martyr Yalçın 2015
and also deployed during Kurdish–Turkish conflict.
In 2014,
after 49 consular employees were taken hostage by ISIS in Mosul,
The Bordo Bereliler carried out joint operations with MIT and rescued the hostages.
With the start of the operation against Syria in 2017,
Bordo Berelile infiltrated the region and carried out exploration
activities supported by the Free Syrian Army.