Turkey names new armed forces chiefs

Turkey picked four new generals to lead its armed forces yesterday in a shake-up seen as consolidating civilian control of the military. The previous four generals quit last week in protest at the jailing of officers in coup conspiracy cases.

General Necdet Ozel, previously head of the paramilitary gendarmerie, was named as new chief of general staff for the second largest armed forces in Nato.

The shock departure last Friday of General Ozel's predecessor, Isik Kosaner, and the heads of the ground forces, navy and air force, brought to the surface years of tension between the secularist military and a Prime Minister whose party emerged from a banned Islamist party over a decade ago.