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Police Special Operation Department
Military unit From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Police Special Operations Department (Turkish: Polis Özel Harekât Dairesi) or Police Special Action[1] (Turkish: Polis Özel Harekât), abbreviated as PÖH, is the tier one police tactical unit of the General Directorate of Security in Republic of Türkiye that specialized in quick response to security emergency situations with SWAT unit tactics.
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History
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The PÖH was founded in 1983[2] as "Special Operations Office" (Turkish: Özel Harekat Şube Müdürlüğü), under the command of Department of Public Security, to prevent armed acts of terrorist organizations residential area or in rural areas, to rescue hostages in places like aircraft, land vehicles, ships, subways, trains, and in enclosed spaces like buildings, to ensure the safety in cities and in civil aviation airports with special skills, modern weapons, ammunition, vehicles, equipment, tactics and techniques.
In larger cities like Ankara, Istanbul, and İzmir, "Special Operations Group Authorities "(Turkish: Özel Harekat Grup Amirlikleri) were organized in the same year.
As a result of changing conditions, in 1987, the office was transferred to the Anti-Terrorism and Operations Department under the name "Special Operations Branch" (Turkish: Özel Harekat Şubesi).
In 1993, the Special Operations Branch was promoted to a department and gained its current structuring.[3]
İbrahim Şahin was head of the Department until being forced to resign in 1996 over the Susurluk scandal. Ayhan Çarkın was a notable member of the department in the 1990s.
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Missions
The unit's missions primarily involve anti-irregular military, apprehension of armed and dangerous criminals, counterterrorism, executive protection, high-risk tactical law enforcement situations, hostage rescue crisis management, maneuver warfare, operating in difficult to access terrains, protecting high-level meeting areas, providing security in areas at risk of attack or terrorism, rapid respond to security emergency situations, special reconnaissance in difficult to access and dangerous areas, support crowd control and riot control, and other tactical special operations.
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Organisation
The force consists of 22,000 personnel, more than a thousand of whom are women.[4]
It is also deployed as part of the Turkish occupation of northern Syria.[5]
Training
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To qualify for PÖH, an applicant must:
- Run the 2500m designated area with a backpack weighing 10 kg, under 15 minutes
- Have 50% minimum accuracy in pistol and rifle shooting
- Swim 150 m without stopping
- Be between ages 18 and 32
- Have graduated from police high school or university
In addition, a training simulation called TAKSİS is conducted by TÜBİTAK.[6]
Expert airplane-train-bus operations, basic tactical diving, commando style raids, crowd control and riot control, counterinsurgency, defusing and disposal of bombs and land mines, desert warfare, executive protection, fast and effective use of weapons, gathering field intelligence, heliborne, maneuver warfare, NBCR on operations in contaminated environments, residential warfare, rescue operations with or without hostages, marksmanship, mountain warfare, negotiation, psychological warfare, reconnaissance, SERE, shooting techniques, sniper and counter-sniper tactics, surface boat operations, superior physical conditioning training, tactical emergency medical and casualty evacuation, and urban counterterrorism.
After 6 months of training, the applicant will receive a certificate officially identifying himself as an operator of PÖH.[7]
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Tactics
PÖH uses automatic and special weapons and rapid deployment tactics for exceptional circumstances such as anti-irregular military, bank robberies, counterinsurgency, counter-snipers, crowd control and riot control, dangerous criminals, defusing and disposal of bombs or unexploded ordnance, kidnappings, hostage rescues, providing security in areas at risk of attack or terrorism, reconnaissance in risky areas, urban terrorisms, VIPs protection, and among others.
The nature of the unit is quite like US SWAT units or the German GSG 9. PÖH mostly specializes in anti-irregular military, apprehension of armed and dangerous criminals, counterinsurgency, executive protection, high-risk tactical law enforcement situations, operating in difficult to access terrains, rapid respond to security emergency situations with SWAT unit tactics, urban counterterrorism, and hostage rescue operations against irregular forces and is able to undertake operations in many environments, including buses and planes.
Police Special Operation Department is one of a handful of security forces in the world which employs active front line female squad members in combat operations.[8]
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Equipment
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Vehicles
References
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