TURKEY BREAKS DEADLOCK OVER TOP MILITARY POSTS

Turkey on August 9 announced a new armed forces head and army chief, days after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan blackballed a general named in a probe into an Internet campaign against his government. Chairing a promotion panel dominated by military top brass last week, Erdogan refused to sanction the commanders’ first choice to become army chief as the general they chose was one of 19 officers summoned by a state prosecutor to give testimony in an investigation into the anti-government slur campaign. That meant the Supreme Military Council had to stall promoting the current army chief, General Isik Kosaner, to the top slot as chief of staff for the Turkish armed forces, the second largest in NATO. The military issued a statement announcing Kosaner would indeed succeed General Ilker Basbug as chief of staff. The next commander of land forces, the head the army, will be General Erdal Ceylanoglu, who got the job after Erdogan blocked the favorite, General Hasan Igsiz, commander of the prestigious First Army.