August 02, 2008	Saturday	Rajab 29, 1429

ISTANBUL, Aug 1: Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan chaired a military council on Friday to appoint a new chief of Turkey’s powerful armed forces as domestic tensions eased.

Land forces commander Ilker Basbug, considered a hawkish general, is expected to take the helm of the military’s General Staff from General Yasar Buyukanit, who retires on Aug 31.

The move comes as Nato member Turkey hopes to put behind it a long power struggle between the secularist establishment, including generals and judges, and Erdogan’s AK Party.

Turkey’s highest court on Wednesday rejected an attempt by a chief prosecutor — seen as backed by the secularists — to shut down the Islamist-rooted AK Party but imposed financial penalties on it for anti-secular activities. The government has long been at odds with the secularist establishment over the role of religion in Turkey.

Turkey, predominantly Mus-lim, has a secular constitution, and the military considers itself the ultimate guardian of the republic founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Hardline secularists accuse the AK Party of harbouring a hidden Islamist agenda by seeking to ease restrictions on religion in public life, such as its failed attempt to ease a ban on Muslim headscarves at universities.

—Reuters