Best European Sniper Team 24, “The Paragoda” in the sniper competition

There seems to be a strong background behind the results of this year’s European Sniper Competition. “Best European Sniper Team 24” with Turkish discrimination follows special treatment, with the aim of “mitigating” the impressions of the failed attendance in previous years.

19 countries participated in the competition, with teams from the USA, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Canada, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Turkey, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Slovenia.

So we read in one of the publications on the Internet that the Turkish Armed Forces achieved remarkable success on the eighth Top Scorer Team in Europe Competition In Germany, he took first and second place. In fact, in a flattering tone, the author of the article, who apparently has nothing to do with defense issues (let alone special forces issues), hastened to describe the Turkish lead in this year’s competition with the special forces as “overwhelming”. The obvious purpose is to insult the Greek special forces, talk about “professionals” (although it is not known who is being addressed), and clearly seeks to influence specific people in this rather cheap and unfortunate way.

Controversial Turkish Discrimination

The same publication also quotes the Turkish Defense Ministry’s announcement, which stated that the competition, which took place from August 4 to 12 at the Hohenfels Training Center in Germany, was organized by US Army Europe-Africa Command 36 teams participated in it, with Türkiye represented by teams from the Land Forces Command and the Special Forces Command.

The relevant announcement stated, among other things, the following:Under the responsibility of the leadership of the Mountain Commando School and Training CenterBoth of our teams were very successful. The Ground Forces Command team finished the race in first place, while the Special Forces Command team came in second place.

However, a similar announcement – as is customary in all similar cases of participation of ED units in international events and exercises – was also made by GEETHA on August 14, stating that personnel of the Special Warfare Command (DEP) of GEETHA would participate from Monday 5 to Tuesday 13 August 2024 in the “Best Sniper Team in Europe – 24” (EBSC-24) competition, at the invitation of the Commander of the United States Army in Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF).

In particular, it is noteworthy that in the competition held in Hohenfels, Germany, a pair of sniper rifles of the college won the fourth place among 45 teams from 18 NATO member states, which reflects the high level of training and professionalism of the personnel of the Special Operations Forces – Special Forces (DEE-ED) of our country, while the second team took the 21st place.

It is worth mentioning that the GEETHA announcement rightly reminded that achieving the fourth position comes as a continuation of the high performance also in the corresponding competitions, where the college staff took the 1st and 4th place in 2022 And also for her 4th and 5th place in 2023Pointing out that the aim of the competition is to exchange knowledge, experiences, tactics, techniques and use of new equipment in addition to strengthening the ties between free shooters from the participating countries as well as increasing the number of free shooters from the participating countries for their combat capabilities and interoperability.

Negatives and negative impressions of administrations

And here the “misunderstanding” begins somewhere, which prompted us to investigate the matter and draw very interesting conclusions that reveal what is invisible to the general side of this particular event. Initially, some critical opinions left a completely bad impression, regarding the fact that the announcement of the GITA was limited only to the announcement of the results of the Greek sniper team, ignoring, apparently, “for obvious reasons”, the mention of the rest of the results, especially the results of the two Turkish teams rising in the general classification.

The answer, of course, is self-evident to all intelligent people, since GRETHA, by definition, as an official service body, deals exclusively with the employees of the Greek executive departments. While for those interested in more information about the international competition process, there is always the option of going online where more and more detailed information about all the participating teams can be found.

The suggestion of two groups of Turkish snipers may not be “fun” for us, but it is certainly not a clear indicator of the general level of the neighboring army in this particular discipline. However, the fact of the “double championship” in itself is curious, especially if we consider that in exactly the same competition in previous years, all Turkish teams were in the last places of the overall standings among more than 45 teams from 18 NATO countries.

So what happened suddenly? Has the level of training of Turkish snipers increased dramatically in just 12 months or has the best “talent” been found and sent to restore the prestige and glory of their armed forces?

We sought answers from people who know and are well informed about the competition in question, and we quickly discovered that there is a rich and… interesting background to the NATO competition, which one would expect to be characterised by neutrality and fair competition between the competitors.

One on the nail and one on the shoe

Thus, we were informed that during the specific competition process, not only was everything going smoothly, but in several cases it was found that there were several incidents where the organizing committee… gave special treatment to the two Turkish teams. This is because its members, according to the preferred tactic they systematically apply in international military events, create artificial objections and protests due to alleged problems or discriminatory behavior of the evaluators, even demanding re-evaluation in tests that do not achieve a satisfactory result. Performance in their favor.

Of course, such behavior is considered unacceptable and displeases the competition committees, as it creates delays while the paradox is that in several cases they are forced to… tolerate Turkish whims. It has even been explained that this deviant behavior is tolerated for another reason. The circulating image of the Turkish ED is an example to be avoided on a mental level, while there is no climate of rapprochement with other NATO countries, on a professional and linguistic level (ignorance of English) and as well as on a physical and religious level. An element that the Turks are always keen to highlight, citing among other things… “unfair treatment” by non-Muslim – i.e. Christian – residents.

All of the above often makes them unpopular as this entails at the tactical level. On the contrary, it is known at the NATO decision-making level that there is a clear line to keep Turkey – at all costs – within NATO institutions and plans, as a valuable ally that should not move away towards Iran or Moscow. Therefore, it seems that this trend applies not only at the high level but also at the lower level of groups that are involved in a competitive process such as “Best European Sniper Team 24 “

Tests and corresponding status for Finns

So, in the interest of the famous interoperability, it seems that some “sacrifices” can be made that translate into tolerance or a positive result so that the “ally” can regain its prestige and pride through the event in question. Which tests snipers over 8 days in a variety of shots at all distances with all possible light, wind and humidity conditions. Among other things, there are shots from high angles and from helicopters, day and night, which can affect the performance of even the best.

If all of the above happens, it is reasonable to raise doubts about the first place in the overall ranking of last year’s competition, which was participated by a sniper team from Finland, which is known as the newest addition to NATO (in April 2023 it became the 31st member state of NATO).

We will just remind you that after that, although the Finnish snipers started strongly, they quickly dropped to fifth place, after the Greeks had already taken their place in the overall standings on the second day. Despite this, they tried to keep their points close to the Special Warfare Command Group GETH and those of the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army, while the Greeks maintained the lead. They finally managed literally at the last moment to climb to first place, displacing the Greek team by surprise in fourth place, after receiving “valuable points” by shooting into the river from a small inflatable. The result of the contact was quite in line with the welcome that the NATO leadership wanted to give to the new ally, in the midst of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and after lifting the objections that its friend and ally Ankara had been holding on to for months.

For all, participation in this competition is beneficial as the officers of the Special Warfare Command have the opportunity to move to a completely different environment and gain valuable experience by participating in a competition with teams that have decades of experience. Up to a few weeks. All of them are invited to operate in an environment different from their home countries, gaining valuable experiences and relationships that collectively raise the level and morale of the famous “esprit de corps” with snipers being a very important specialty within the Special Forces and the Special Forces community. work. Which is required to be immediately reinforced with the appropriate weapons and ammunition, stipulated in the context of the relevant supplies, which, despite the approval of the command, has been stuck for months in the review conference for feedback.

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