TSK plans to reduce bureaucratic steps to shoot PKK targets

The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) has begun to implement a new strategy to ease the bureaucratic process with regard to the order of "shoot on sight" upon the detection of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which would enable army officers in the southeastern region to take immediate action without having to wait for the go-ahead from top army officials in Ankara. On order of Gen. Necdet Ozel, chief of General Staff, the new procedure is being implemented to eliminate the existing mechanism of getting official permission to fire at PKK targets that is marred by a long bureaucratic process which diminishes the possibility of an effective military response especially in the case of when UAVs detect PKK terrorists crossing the border to launch assaults on military posts that border Iraq, the Star daily reported on Thursday. According to the previous system, when UAVs transmit visuals of PKK terrorists to the ground station, the officers relay that information to their superior officers. To take military action, this information even is sent to Ankara for permission, which takes two hours. This bureaucratic process makes an effective and swift military response against terrorists impossible. According to new procedure, if a UAV detects a group of terrorists, the Second Army and the Second Air Force can jointly decide to shoot the targets, a process which will only take 15 minutes as there is no need to contact Ankara of permission.