National Gendarmerie

Four people who were reported missing after going on a hike in a forested area in the western province of Manisa have been found after a comprehensive search effort.

Energy Minister Taner Y?ld?z recently attracted a lot of reaction when he declared: ?I want to be a martyr.?

Mehmet Alkan, a member of the Turkish Gendarmerie who lost his brother, was one of those who reacted, saying at his brother?s funeral: ?You can?t say you want to be a martyr and then walk around with an armored guard surrounded by 30 body guards.?

Turkey's top court ruled for a total of 190,000 Turkish Liras of compensation to be paid to the relatives of an inmate who was killed during a gendarmerie operation codenamed "Operation Return to Life" in Ankara's Ulucanlar Prison in September 1999. 

In the Akçada? district of the central Anatolian province of Malatya, suspects opened fire on four people who were drinking alcohol and fled, leaving 2 killed.

As tension in the country skyrockets, 10 suspects have been detained in the investigation of a gendarmerie officer who was murdered in Turkey's eastern province of Mu?, while a specialized sergeant was killed in a separate attack in the southeastern province of Hakkari. 

The dead bodies of a young couple who had been camping on a beach were found on July 8 in the Marmara province of Kocaeli.

A specialized sergeant died late June 20 in an armed clash between the gendarmerie and treasure smugglers after being pushed from a cliff in the Aegean province of Denizli.

The Turkish government maintains security during the June 7 general elections with a total of 404,000 security personnel.

Some 300,000 police officers will be on duty throughout the day, Interior Minister Sebahattin Öztürk said on June 5 in a televised interview, adding that the rest of the personnel will be gendarmerie.

Turkey's top judicial body has decided to permit the prosecution of five prosecutors and three gendarmerie commanders involved in the halting of Syria-bound National Intelligence Organization (M?T) trucks in Turkey's south last year.

Turkish security forces will take extraordinary measures to provide security during the June 7 elections, as 150,000 police officers will be on duty during election day. 

As part of the measures, weekend days off for security forces, including officers and the gendarmerie, have been canceled in order to efficiently address any kind of unrest.