Necdet
Özel has been the Chief of the General Staff of Turkey's armed
forces since August 2011, when the top leadership resigned to protest
judicial interference with the military. Prior to this appointment,
he served in Cyprus before returning to Turkey, where he served in
Kurdish regions and later commanded the War College.
In 2010, he became commander of the Gendarmerie, which polices areas
where the cost to maintain a police force would be prohibitive.
Özel
was the highest-ranking commander to remain after the widespread
resignations in July 2011, and thus was a likely replacement as Chief
of Staff, especially due to his strong support for democracy in a
country where history has seen the military stage coups to preserve
the ideal of a secular government. Özel's short tenure as head of
the military has seen violent clashes with Kurdish separatists and
the accidental bombing of a Kurdish village.
For more information, see http://bit.ly/z8XRHy and http://bit.ly/wWqezC
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