ABSTRACT

Search and rescue operations intend to save the lives of people in need of emergency assistance who have been endangered by natural disasters or any other unwanted cause. Especially in marine accidents, due to the challenging conditions of the marine environment and the specific rules of the maritime, search and rescue activities to be implemented require complex needs such as legal and operational infrastructure, organization within the public sector, qualified personnel, effective communication and reporting system, international level cooperation. Taking into consideration this situation, countries can establish search and rescue organizations at sea and determine search and rescue zones in the surrounding seas in their own internal legal regulations in order to save human life. As search and rescue is a service area aiming to ensure the safety of casualties, states can carry out these activities only within the framework of their organic organizations, as well as providing search and rescue services within the framework of agreements made with other states. In previous years search and rescue operations that carried out at sea were executed with the perception of rescue of survivors after ship accidents. However, due to the worldwide economic imbalances in recent years, the mass deaths caused on illegal irregular migration done by people trying to cross from Middle East and North Africa to Europe have increased the importance of search and rescue activities. These incidents are handled in terms of security in order to prevent immigrants who try to cross the maritime border, and in terms of safety in order to ensure the safety of these people.

In this study, the Turkish Search and Rescue Organization, which was established in order to prevent in marine accidents, was introduced and the cooperation activities and conflicts with other countries and organizations for marine search and rescue regions, which were determined in accordance with national and international legal regulations, were presented. Document Review Method was used while researching article subjects.