In this photo provided by the Prime Ministry Press Service, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, new Turkish Chief of Staff Gen. Necdet Ozel, 4th from left, new Commander of Military Police Gen. Bekir Kalyoncu, left, Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz, second left, aand Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin, third left, are seen during a security meeting in Ankara. -AP Photo

ANKARA: Turkey selected four new generals to lead its armed forces on Thursday in a shake-up seen as consolidating civilian control of the military after the previous four 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 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 Islamic party more than a decade ago.

President Abdullah Gul approved the appointment of new army, navy and air force chiefs, presidential spokesman Ahmet Sever told reporters after a meeting of the Supreme Military Council (YAS). He subsequently signed a formal cabinet decision approving Ozel as the new armed forces chief.

Earlier Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan visited military headquarters to sign off on the promotions, seen as enabling him to tighten control over a military which once had the last word in Turkish politics but whose powers he had curbed while pushing through EU-backed reforms to strengthen democracy.

The new generals, too, may not love the AK Party, given the ingrained antipathy towards it in the military establishment.

But Erdogan will make sure they will not turn a blind eye to any fellow officers running rogue operations against his government. Financial markets took little notice of the changes, their attention taken by a surprise interest rate cut by the central bank. None of the top appointments were major surprises but they indicated a measure of compromise.

Ozel had won a significant concession in extending for one year the duties of 14 generals currently jailed as part of the conspiracy investigations amid speculation they could be forced into retirement, analysts said.