BREAKING NEWS

Turkey appoints new military commanders as government asserts control

By REUTERS

AUGUST 3, 2013 17:39

ISTANBUL - Turkey appointed new military commanders on Saturday in an overhaul of its top ranks that underlined the government's control over armed forces which once dominated political life.

NATO's second largest army is facing multiple challenges as conflict in neighboring Syria spills across the border and a peace process with Kurdish militants looks increasingly fragile.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who chaired the Supreme Military Council meeting, has eroded the army's power since his Islamist-rooted AK Party first came to power in 2002. The secularist military staged three coups between 1960 and 1980 and pushed the first Islamist-led government out of office in 1997.

The council decides on promotions and retirements of top officers every year at its three-day August meeting and had been expected to make major changes at this week's gathering.

The forced retirement of paramilitary gendarmerie force commander General Bekir Kalyoncu, who had been the leading candidate to take over land forces, was the most unexpected of the Council's decisions.

Media reports said Ankara was opposed to Kalyoncu leading the country's land forces as he was regarded as a government critic and his name had cropped up in testimony in the trial of the alleged Ergenekon conspiracy against Erdogan's government. A verdict on that trial is scheduled for Monday.

Instead, General Hulusi Akar was given the job and, according to custom, would be expected to replace General Necdet Ozel as overall armed forces head in 2015.

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