Turkish PM Erdogan names new generals

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appointed four new senior generals on Thursday in a move seen as consolidating his control over the military.

General Necdet Ozel was appointed as the country’s new chief of general staff, while new heads were named to lead the Turkish army, navy and air force.

Their predecessors quit in protest at the jailing of senior officers accused of plotting to overthrow the government.

Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party says it wants to rewrite the constitution in the name of democracy — the document was drafted after a 1980 military coup.

But the staunchly secular establishment, led by the armed forces and the judiciary, fear Erdogan will seek to impose his own conservative values.

They argue this would go against the secularist principles of Turkey’s founding father, Kemal Ataturk.

Copyright © 2013 euronews