Postby hammy » Sun Apr 18, 2010 12:15 pm
Merhaba !
The rating is rather affected by the particular ROLE that the country assigns it's navy .
While historically the old Ottoman fleet was a seapower to reckon with , for the last hundred years or so the Turkish Fleet has been confined to coastal and local sea area control , rather than blue water operations .
And holding the Bosphorous/Bogaz and the Dardanelles by the throat and so controlling the access to the Black sea .
At the present time , with the unrest in the north and east of the Black sea , and the (regrettable) continuing ill-feeling between Turkey and Greece along the aegean and levantine littorals , Turkey is obliged to keep a sharp eye on two widely seperated potential maritime conflict zones , neither of which can be reinforced quickly except by an extended round trip which leaves the other weaker .
it's as if Britain was faced with hostilities by Spain at Gibraltar , while at the same time the Iceland Cod war was in full swing .
That may well be the reason for the Turkish navy's current strength .
In the case of the so-called major naval powers , their ocean going projection of sea-power is what ranks them higher , rather than gross numbers of ships/personnel .
Having seen something of the Turkish Armed Forces on my holiday to Istanbul a couple of weeks ago , I would say the Turkish navy is perfectly competent , but that the tasks and security threats in the region mean it doesnt get out of area much .
I know they assign vessels regularly to the standing joint NATO Mediterranean naval squadron , but I am not sure that they have a ship away on the Somali Pirate patrols -- understandably , Arab<-->Turk relations are sensitive , given that most were formerly Ottoman Empire territories , that Turkey and Israel are presently Allied , and that Turkey remains a firmly secular state , with a population which (to fundamentalist eyes) appears to be tainted with "western lax morality" .
" Relax ! No-one else is going to be fool enough to be sailing about in this fog ."