page_title: Counter-Guerrilla
section_title: Tactical Mobilization Group (1952–1965)
hierarchical_section_title: Counter-Guerrilla / Tactical Mobilization Group (1952–1965)
caption_attribution_description: English: U.S. Army Field Manual 31-15: Operations Against Irregular Forces Figure 3: Possible relationships in a cold war situation.
context_page_description: Counter-Guerrilla is the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, a clandestine stay-behind anti-communist initiative backed by the United States as an expression of the Truman Doctrine. The founding goal of the operation was to erect a stay-behind guerrilla force to undermine a possible Soviet occupation. The goal was soon expanded to subverting communism in Turkey.
  The Counter-Guerrilla initially operated out of the Turkish Armed Forces' Tactical Mobilization Group. In 1967, the STK was renamed to the Special Warfare Department. In 1994, the ÖHD became the Special Forces Command.
  In Turkey there is a popular belief that the Counter-Guerrilla are responsible for numerous unsolved acts of violence, and have exerted great influence over the country's Cold War history, most notably for engendering the military coups of 1971 and 1980.
  The military accepts that the ÖKK is tasked with subverting a possible occupation, though it denies that the unit is Gladio's "Counter-Guerrilla", i.e., that it has engaged in black operations.
context_section_description: With the consent of the National Defense Supreme Council (Turkish: Milli Savunma Yüksek Kurulu), brigadier general Daniş Karabelen founded the Tactical Mobilization Group (Turkish: Seferberlik Taktik Kurulu, or STK) on 27 September 1952. Karabelen was one of sixteen soldiers (including Turgut Sunalp, Ahmet Yıldız, Alparslan Türkeş, Suphi Karaman, and Fikret Ateşdağlı) who had been sent to the United States in 1948 for training in special warfare. These people were to form the core of the Special Warfare Department (Turkish: Özel Harp Dairesi, or ÖHD). It has been said that the training also entailed an element of CIA recruitment.
  Some full generals that later ran the department were Adnan Doğu, Aydın İlter, Sabri Yirmibeşoğlu, İbrahim Türkgenci, Doğan Bayazıt, and Fevzi Türkeri. Karabelen picked Ismail Tansu as his right-hand man, and they expanded the STK in a cellular fashion. They filled the ranks, mostly with reserve officers, inducted them with an oath, and educated them before allowing them to return to civilian life. The officers were given no weapons, funding, or immediate task. The recruitment was more concentrated in the east, where an invasion was most likely to occur.
  Books used to educate the officers included:
  David Galula's famous Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice. Translated in Turkish as Ayaklanmaları Bastırma Harekâtı: Teori ve Pratik per orders from then chief of the ÖHD, major general M. Cihat Akyol.
  U.S. Army Field Manual 31-15: Operations Against Irregular Forces. Translated into Turkish as Sahra Talimnamesi 31-15: Gayri Nizami Kuvvetlere Karşı Harekat, and put into practice on 25 May 1964 per orders from general Ali Keskiner.
  Senior infantry colonel Cahit Vural's Gerillaya Giriş (1972).
  Later, the generals formed the Turkish Resistance Organization to counter the Greek Cypriot EOKA. Operating under the authority of the Chief of the General Staff, the STK was quartered in the JUSMMAT (Turkish: Amerikan Askerî Yardım Heyeti) building in Bahçelievler, Ankara. Ismail Tansu says that the American headquarters were facing the old Gülhane building, and that the STK's headquarters were in a villa near Kolej, Kızılay. He also said that he used to meet soldiers from the J3 Operations Directorate a few times a week, alternating between their bases. Some of his associates were colonel Latent, captain Berger, and major Hill.
  In the 1960s, Türkeş established the "civilian" Associations for Struggling with Communism (Turkish: Komünizm ile Mücadele Dernekleri) and funded the far-right National Movement Party (Turkish: Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP). These formed the core of future ultra-nationalist militants, used by the Counter-Guerrilla in destabilizing events.
  The CIA employed people from the far right, such as Pan-Turkist SS-member Ruzi Nazar (father of Sylvia Nasar), to train the Grey Wolves (Turkish: Ülkücüler), the youth wing of the MHP. Nazar was an Uzbek born near Tashkent who had deserted the Red Army to join the Nazis during World War II in order to fight on the Eastern Front for the creation of a Turkistan. After Germany lost the war, some of its spies found haven in the U.S. intelligence community. Nazar was such a person, and he became the CIA's station chief to Turkey.
  The STK became the Special Warfare Department (Turkish: Özel Harp Dairesi, ÖHD) in 1967.
caption: The command structure of the Counter-Guerrilla, as suggested in Field Manual 31-15: Operations Against Irregular Forces. The Host Country in this case is Turkey.
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