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    "localId": "294550265",
    "label": "Central Intelligence Agency, Situation Report 1/1, Turkey",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Central Intelligence Agency, Situation Report 1/1, Turkey",
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    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 22,
            "logicalDate": "1948-12-22",
            "month": 12,
            "year": 1948
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{
    "seq": 47,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750423/750423-05-047.tif",
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    "ocrText": "SECRET\nCHAPTER IV\nMILITARY SITUATION\n1.\nCHARACTERISTICS OF THE ARMED FORCES.*\na. Army.\n(1) Organization: 3 Armies, 13 Army Corps, 35 Infantry Divisions, 3 Cavalry\nDivisions, 6 Armored Brigades, and 4 Fortress Commands. There are about 38,200\nadditional security troops (gendarmerie and customs guards).\n(2) Equipment: Under the program of aid developed by the US Mission,\nTurkey is receiving modern war matériel and equipment which to some extent will\nreplace the army's present obsolescent weapons and equipment of German, British, and\nother foreign manufacture. While Turkey must import all heavier and motorized\nmatériel, some small arms ammunition, powder, shells, fuses, mines, etc., are produced\nlocally. Under the US aid program, Turkish arsenals will be enlarged and improved.\n(3) Recruitment: In addition to the regular army, two classes of conscripts\n(1927 and 1928) are under arms, the class of 1926 having been released during July and\nAugust on extended furlough. Turkish Army units are now at approximately 33 per-\ncent of war strength. Total strength of the army, exclusive of security troops (about\n38,200) is estimated at about 309,300.\n(4) Disposition: Over one half of the divisions are concentrated in Thrace\nand south of the Straits area. First Army headquarters is in Istanbul and Second\nArmy's at Balikesir. The Third Army (Hq. Erzurum) is responsible for the defenses in\neastern Turkey.\nThe Turkish Army is well disciplined and loyal, and its morale is high.\nIts officer corps has generally been drawn from the best types of all the Turks. Many\nof the officers belong to families which have for generations boasted of the military\nprowess of their ancestors and have themselves tried to follow in that tradition. This\napplies to a less extent to soldiers of all ranks. Owing partly to his military background\nand partly to his fatalistic religion, the Turk is a courageous soldier. Lack of familiarity\nof all ranks with mechanical equipment has resulted in a pronounced weakness in this\nrespect. The US training program, which has already begun, should to an appreciable\nextent overcome this shortcoming.\n(Note: Plans to reorganize the Turkish Armed Forces are now under consideration by the\nTurkish General Staff, acting upon the advice of the US Military Mission. Their organization as\nindicated in this section is, therefore, tentative. Similarly, statements in this section regarding\nthe equipment of the Turkish Armed Forces, which is currently being modernized as a major pur-\npose of the US aid program, are equally tentative and subject to substantive revision in the near\nfuture.)\n* Personnel strength figures given in this section, as well as statements regarding the status of\nrecruitment and number of aircraft, have been revised immediately prior to release of this Situation\nReport, and are believed to be correct as of 15 November 1948.\n39\nSECRET\nNARA"
}