Security assistance mission in the Republic of Turkey

DISAM Journal, Winter, 2003 by Richard Robey, Jeffrey Vordermark

Introduction

The Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) Turkey, is the largest among United States European Commands (USEUCOM) 93 (1) countries, facilitates a dynamic and multi-faceted defense relationship with the Republic of Turkey. The Chief, Headquarters Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) Turkey, a United States Air Force Major General, is the primary point of contact for all security assistance programs between the United States Government (US government) and the government of Turkey. The Office of Defense Cooperation is a joint, multi-service organization that fosters US government and US defense industry participation in Turkish defense initiatives and facilitates United States military activities based in the country of Turkey. Headquarters Office of Defense Cooperation Turkey reports to USEUCOM in Stuttgart, Germany. The ODC is located in Ankara, Turkey, the capital city of Turkey.

The geostrategic position of the Republic of Turkey, at the heart of the most unstable triangle in the world, the Balkans, Caucasus, and the Middle East, makes it imperative that the United States help maintain a strong and allied modern Turkish military. To meet their domestic and alliance needs, the Turkish military continues to try to expand its national defense industry to support its armed forces and develop a viable defense industrial base at a time when Turkey is required to bring its overall level of spending under control to enact necessary economic reforms for European Union (EU) accession. Turkey is a member of the United Nations (UN), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) and the Western European Union (WEU).

Military security assistance, or simply security assistance, started in Turkey in 1947 and has developed over the years to be an integral part of the US peacetime engagement strategy and now significantly contributes to our national security and foreign policy objectives. The principal components of the US security assistance program in Turkey are:

* Foreign military sales (FMS);

* Foreign military financing (FMF);

* International military and education training (IMET) programs, and;

* Excess defense articles (EDA) transfers.

All of these components of the US security assistance program have enabled Turkey over the last fifty-five years to acquire US equipment, services, and training for the legitimate self-defense and for participation in multinational security efforts. Ongoing military assistance efforts also support the primary US foreign policy goal of safeguarding United States national security. By enhancing the defense capabilities of US allies to address conflicts, humanitarian assistance due to crisis, humanitarian de-mining, and natural disasters, it is less likely that American forces will be called upon to respond to regional problems. In fact, US doctrine, Joint Pub 3-16, acknowledging this trend toward coalition operations, states that "The United States often participates in operations as part of a coalition or alliance." (2)

In Desert Storm and again in operations against the former Republic of Yugoslavia, the United States worked within the framework of a multinational coalition to achieve a solution to a regional problem. Strengthening deterrence, encouraging shared defense responsibility among allies, supporting allied readiness, and increasing interoperability between coalition partners through the transfer of US defense equipment and military training help security partners defend against aggression and strengthen their ability to fight alongside US forces in coalition efforts. Therefore, when US involvement becomes necessary, these programs help to ensure that foreign militaries work more efficiently with our allies rather than be hobbled by mismatched equipment, communications, and doctrine.

Modern Turkey, which rose from the ashes of the Islamic Ottoman Empire, has generally proven to be a valuable and steadfast ally. Still growing as a young democracy, it has remained a secular and western-oriented country for eighty years, and continues to strive to attain the ideals of its founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. A man of vast intellect and abundant vision, proved Ataturk to be the right man at the right time to forge a new nation from a crumbling empire, and set modern Turkey on a path from which it has not strayed despite numerous challenges.

Turkey joined the UN in 1945 and NATO in 1952. Although Turkey and Greece both belong to NATO, longstanding disputes over the Aegean Sea and Cyprus still strain relations between the two countries. During the Cold War, Turkey's importance to the US was largely due to its geostrategic location. It was one of only two NATO countries (the other being Norway) that had a common border with the Soviet Union. With its huge military capability the second largest in NATO after the US, it represented a serious deterrence capability to the Soviet Union. Also, Turkey, by controlling the Bosporus and Dardanelles, could shut down the USSR's only warm water ports in the Black Sea. As 95 percent of Soviet commercial shipping passed through these narrow waterways, this was, and remains today a vital passage for international trade.