Mick Hartley

The ongoing struggle between the Turkish military and the ruling AKP takes another, perhaps decisive, twist. The military see themselves as the protectors of Ataturk's secular vision against the Islamist designs of Prime Minister Erdogan. This round – in what may well be the start of the endgame - goes to the AKP:

The chief of the Turkish armed forces, Isik Kosaner, has resigned along with the army, navy and air force heads.

They were furious about the arrest of senior officers, accused of plotting, shortly before a round of military promotions.

A series of meetings between Gen Kosaner and PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan failed to resolve their differences….

There has been a history of tension between the secularist military and the governing AK party, with the two sides engaged in a war of words for the past two years over allegations that parts of the military had been plotting a coup.

Investigations into those allegations, known as the "Sledgehammer" conspiracy – appear to be the root cause of today's resignations, says the BBC's correspondent in Istanbul, with the senior military wanting to go ahead with scheduled annual promotions for some of the officers implicated – and the government refusing.

According to Al-Jazeera, General Kosaner was a "hardline secularist". Erdogan will no doubt be glad to see the back of him. According to Soner Cagaptay, though, the secular tradition of the Turkish military make it unlikely that a replacement to Erdogan's taste can be easily found:

Turkish military officers all undergo the same training, with the same discipline and commitment to secularism and the subsequent opposition to the AKP. It will be difficult for the AKP to find pro-AKP officials in the military's top ranks.

This leaves Turkey with two options: Operate with a headless military, a risk in a country flanked by Iran, Iraq and Syria, the last of which is undergoing revolutionary turmoil right on the other side of a 500 mile-long border; or fashion an agreement between the AKP and the military to turn the high beams of the Ergenekon case off.

Turkey's moment of reckoning, delayed since 2002, seems to have arrived.

For more on the dubious Sledgehammer conspiracy see here and here.