ANKARA
The blue berets attract a great deal of attention with their outstanding performance to survive in harsh natural conditions and with their exceptional training to serve in war zones.
The soldiers under training are all selected from those serving their compulsary military service.
One of the rare training centers in Turkey, Isparta Internal Security Training Center Command, provides advanced-level training for the foot soldiers and commandos to serve in eastern and southeastern regions of Turkey.
The blue berets go through a breath-taking training including "bomb race" which involves running with hand grenades, accoutred and armored walk of 200 kilometers in ten weeks, and detection, diagnosis and destruction of mines and hand made explosives.
The blue berets also impress at the "infiltration trail" where they display manoeuvre of escaping under intense machine gun shootings and plastic explosive traps and at the same time neutralize terrorist elements.
The training prioritizes feeling of trust and the skill of rapid decision making and makes the trainee soldiers do crunches, push-ups, pull-ups and rope climbing to prepare them for compelling conditions on a regular basis.
The soldiers are also grafted with base zone defence and road safety skills.
The training raises awareness of first aid and pays attention to the nutrition and sheltering needs of the soldiers.
Reporting by Ferhat Demircan
