Police Special Operation Department: Difference between revisions

Military unit

The Police Special Operations Department (Turkish: Polis Özel Harekât Dairesi) or Police Special Action^[1] (Turkish: Polis Özel Harekât), abbreviated as PÖH, is a police tactical unit of the General Directorate of Security in Turkey.

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.

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]

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]

After 6 months of training, the applicant will receive a certificate officially identifying himself as an operator of PÖH.^[7]

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]