Turkey's council opts to keep military chief unchanged

ANKARA

Turkey’s Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar will remain in office, according to the Supreme Military Council’s decisions announced late Thursday.

In remarks made at a press briefing following a five-hour meeting of the Supreme Military Council in the capital Ankara, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Land Forces Commander Gen. Salih Zeki Colak, Air Forces Commander Gen. Abidin Unal, Naval Forces Commander Gen. Recep Bulent Bostanoglu, and Fleet Commander Admiral Veysel Kosele were also going to keep their respective posts.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Yasar Guler was appointed the new Gendarmerie Commander while Guler’s previous post was given to former First Army Commander Gen. Umit Dundar.

Gen. Musa Avsever is now the new First Army Commander while Gen. Ismail Metin Temel is the Second Army Commander.

Third Army Commander Gen. Ismail Serdar Savas, and Aegean Army Commander Gen. Abdullah Recep are also keeping their posts, Kalin said.

Gen. Hasan Kucukakyuz was appointed the Commander of Combatant Air Force and Air Missile Defense Command.

General Tahir Bekiroglu was appointed the Commander of Land Forces Training and Doctrine Command.

Kalin added the council's decisions had been approved by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, the meeting’s venue was -- in the wake of the July 15 failed coup -- changed for the first time from General Staff headquarters to the prime minister's residence at the Cankaya Palace.

(Reporting by Sarp Ozer; Writing by Hale Turkes)