Gendarmerie General Command in the context of "Seljuq Empire"

A gendarmerie (/ʒɒnˈdɑːrməri, ʒɒ̃-/) is a military or paramilitary force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term gendarme (English: /ˈʒɒndɑːrm/) is derived from the medieval French expression gens d'armes, which translates to 'men-at-arms' (lit. 'people of arms'). In France and some Francophone nations, the gendarmerie is a branch of the armed forces that is responsible for internal security in parts of the territory (primarily in rural areas and small towns in the case of France), with additional duties as military police for the armed forces. It was introduced to several other Western European countries during the Napoleonic conquests. In the mid-twentieth century, a number of former French mandates and colonial possessions (such as Lebanon, Syria, the Ivory Coast and the Republic of the Congo) adopted a gendarmerie after independence.

Similar forces exist in most European countries. The European Gendarmerie Force is a structure, aligned with the European Union, that facilitates joint operations. A similar concept to gendarmerie exists in Russia in the form of internal troops, which are present in many CIS states.

Operation Olive Branch (Turkish: Zeytin Dalı Harekâtı) was an invasion by the Turkish Armed Forces and Syrian National Army (SNA) in the Kurdish-majority Afrin District of northwest Syria, against the People's Protection Units (YPG) of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The air war and use of major artillery ended as the Arab and Turkmen militias of the SNA entered the city of Afrin on 18 March 2018.

Between 395 and 510 civilians were reported killed in the invasion. Other reported war crimes include the mutilation of a female corpse by SNA fighters, the killing of civilians due to indiscriminate shelling by Turkish forces, the alleged use of chemical gas by the Turkish Army, and the indiscriminate shooting of refugees fleeing from the conflict area into Turkey by the Gendarmerie General Command.