TURKEY: "It's not just young officers who are uneasy, the whole army is," said the headline in the mass circulation newspaper, Hurriyet, following the press conference held yesterday by Turkey's top general.
Just the latest sign of tensions between the country secular soldiers and the civilian leadership with its roots in political Islam? Yes and no. General Hilmi Ozkok may have reiterated earlier criticisms of the government's ongoing policy of replacing senior bureaucrats with party supporters. But his decision to talk to a select group of Turkish journalists appeared above all an attempt to stamp his authority on arch-secularists in his own ranks.
Just four days before the establishment daily Huriyet had run with an article "a senior military source" who warned of growing uneasiness among "young officers", an echo of the 1960s military coup when officers overthrew the government and forced senior generals into retirement. Two weeks before that, the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies had published a report warning that growing pressure from hardline subordinates could lead to a coup in the next few years.
"We express any disagreement we may have with government policy through the constitutional channels at our disposal," Gen Ozkok said reportedly yesterday, referring to the monthly National Security Council (NSC) meetings of senior cabinet ministers and top brass.
"I will not accept any discussion of military coups within these walls." From a man widely seen as a mild-mannered moderate that is strong stuff. While military suspicions of the ruling Justice and Development Party are pretty much a constant, tensions have been raised in recent weeks by government efforts to push through a liberalisation package aimed at bringing Turkey into line with European norms in time for next year. Some aspects of the planned changes are highly sensitive. Privately-owned TV stations could be permitted to broadcast Kurdish language programmes. Changes to the controversial "anti-terror law" could bring an end to prison terms for "anti-state propaganda".
Gen Ozkok has suggested that both proposals should be toned down. Other pashas, as generals are known in Turkey, go further. NSC Secretary, Gen Tuncer Kilinc, whose call last spring for Turkey to abandon its attempts to join the EU gave him notoriety, has publicly compared plans to allow foreign observers to watch future elections to Ottoman impotence in the face of western economic interests.
Yesterday, Gen Ozkok reiterated that the army had been the motor behind Turkey's move westwards. In the past that was undoubtedly true. Whether it still is remains to be seen.