To the Law no. 657 on Civil Servants, a new section entitled VIII - GENDARMERIE SERVICES CLASS was added, right after the section VII - SECURITY SERVICES CLASS (Executive Decree 668 Article 22).
In cases not specified by the legislation, Law on Civil Servants has to be taken into account. Nomination and promotion to positions of commissioned and noncommissioned officer, which were previously carried out according to the Law on Turkish Armed Forces Personnel, will now be approved by the Minister of Interior. However, promotions from the position of colonel to brigadier general, and promotions of generals to the next rank will be performed via joint decree. If their services are required, colonels can be kept in duty until the age of 60 and generals until the age of 65, upon the approval of the Minister of Interior. The Gendarmerie General Command can no longer obtain personnel from the Force Commands with the approval of the General Staff (Executive Decree 668 Article 13).
It was stated that the civil servants in the Gendarmerie General Command’s service classes, with the exception of the Gendarmerie Services Class, will benefit from the financial and social rights enjoyed by their peers in the Turkish Armed Forces (Executive Decree 671 Article 30).
A temporary clause added to the law specifies that the Gendarmerie General Command’s demand for military conscripts is met by the Ministry of National Defense for a period of three years, as per Law no. 1111 on Military Service; however, this period can be extended if considered necessary by the Ministry of Interior, upon a decision of the Council of Ministers (Executive Decree 669 Article 111). The obligatory tenure of commissioned and non-commissioned officers was extended from ten to fifteen years. It was decided that those who complete the pilot training program have to serve 3 rather than 8 years (Executive Decree 694 Article 57). An additional clause canceled any personnel procurement activities and status transition procedures which were incomplete as of the date of the executive decree (Executive Decree 674 Article 32). Besides, an amendment to the Article 18 of the Law no. 3466 on Specialist Gendarmes, revised the age requirement for transition from the position of specialist gendarme to noncommissioned officer as being less than 31, whereas it used to be 28 (Executive Decree 680 Article 63). All these are, as indicated above, measures to facilitate efforts to recruit new personnel.
In applications for specialist sergeants, candidates now have to be younger than 28, sign a five-year contract, and will be considered to have completed their military service after a three-year stint as specialists (Executive Decree 694 Article 56).
Depending on domestic security policies and changing security requirements, colonels and higher ranking officers can now be retired with joint decree upon the payment of a compensation for lack of available positions, before the completion of the necessary waiting period (Executive Decree 694 Article 53).
A clause added to the law defines the monetary rewards to be given to those who have been of great service and benefit. Furthermore, the attorney fees of those staff members who find themselves in the position of defendant in a court case while performing their duties and services, may be covered by a special fund in the Gendarmerie General Command’s budget (Executive Decree 680 Article 47).
In the Law no. 657 on Civil Servants, the Article 122, paragraph 1 on the appreciation of achievements and superior achievements, and awards was amended to remove the expression “except the Gendarmerie General Command and Coast Guard Command” from the sentence concerning the powers of the Ministry of National Defense. This is a natural result of the subordination of the Gendarmerie General Command and Coast Guard Command to the Ministry of Interior (Executive Decree 680 Article 36).