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Ankara (AFP) Aug 8, 2010 The Turkish government and the military reached a deal over the appointment of top army chiefs, the prime minister said Sunday, signalling an end to the latest showdown in their power struggle. Turkey had been expected to announce a new army chief and land forces' commander on Wednesday at the end of a four-day meeting of the Supreme Military Council, but the two posts were left vacant in the final list of promotions. Media reports said that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had vetoed the military's choice for land forces' commander, General Hasan Igsiz, because he was implicated in an alleged campaign to discredit the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Igsiz's rejection also delayed the appointment of General Isik Kosaner, the current head of gound forces, as chief of staff. Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Erdogan said that an agreement had been reached "to a great extent" on the names for the two posts. "The names will be presented to me later Sunday. I will sign them and send them to the president tonight" for approval, he said in televised remarks from the western city of Afyonkarahisar. He refused to reveal the names of the generals lined up for the two most senior posts in the army. Media reports said that the government had no objections to Kosaner's appointment and that Ilker Basbug, the current army chief, had proposed a new candidate to head the land forces. The government's rejection of the initial candidate was largely seen as a mark of the ebbing power of the once-untouchable army and a boost to efforts to strengthen civilian power. The military, which sees itself as the guardian of Turkey's secular system, has been locked in a test of strength with the AKP, the moderate offshoot of a banned Islamist movement which came to power in 2002. The clout of the army, which has ousted four governments since 1960, has waned in recent years under reforms by the AKP to boost the country's bid to join the European Union. Since 2007, dozens of retired and active duty soldiers have been charged under a series of investigations into alleged plots to detabilize the country and topple the AKP. The probes have sharply divided the public: Proponents hail them as a boost to democracy while opponents accuse the government of using the investigations to chip away at the army's power in order to realize its alleged plan to introduce religious rule. The AKP denies charges it has designs against the secular system.
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