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The Supreme Military Council, which was once a secretive military body but now consists of senior military officers and cabinet ministers, made the appointments, said Ibrahim Kalin, a presidential spokesman. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim is the chairman of the military council.

Mr. Erdogan approved the appointments and met with the commanders later in the day, Turkish news agencies reported.

Murat Kelkitlioglu, editor in chief of a pro-government daily newspaper, Aksam, praised the new form of the military council in a message on Twitter. This is how a civilian Supreme Military Council happens! he wrote. Instead of 4 days, it take 4 hours! It does not keep busy for a week! If it is required, the top command can be changed!

A retired rear admiral, Semih Cetin, offered praise for three other senior naval appointments announced by the council on Wednesday, saying on Twitter that three colonels who had been targets in an earlier purge by opponents of Mr. Erdogan had been promoted to the rank of admiral.

Yet resistance to civilian control remains inside military circles. Nusret Guner, a vice admiral who resigned in 2013 to protest an earlier crackdown on the army, said in a Twitter message that the countrys military had now become totally intertwined with politics.

Turkeys done for, he added.

The military council selected Yasar Guler, currently commander of the gendarmerie, to take over command of the army. It also appointed Vice Adm. Adnan Ozbal to be commander of the navy, and Hasan Kucukakyuz will command the air force.

It is not clear if the departing commanders were scheduled for retirement or are being replaced early.

Mr. Erdogans government has been overseeing a large-scale purge of the army and other institutions since the attempted coup last year, when a renegade group of military officers tried to seize power, sending tanks into the streets and bombing the Parliament building.

In all, 249 people died during the uprising, for which the government has blamed followers of the Islamist cleric Fethullah Gulen, who was once allied with Mr. Erdogan but is now living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania. He is being tried in absentia for the plot; he has denied the charges.

The government has discharged 169 generals and admirals, almost half of the senior ranks a year ago, and arrested 7,000 military personnel in a crackdown. Tens of thousands of civilians, including government workers, members of Parliament and journalists, have also been detained and charged with aiding the Gulenists.

A trial of nearly 500 people accused of being involved at the plots headquarters at the Akinci Air Base began on Tuesday at a court in a prison near Ankara, the capital. Among the defendants, in addition to Mr. Gulen, is a former commander of the air force, Akin Ozturk. The charges include murder, violating the Constitution and trying to kill the president.

A version of this article appears in print on August 3, 2017, on Page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: Turkey Picks New Officers For Top Posts In the Military.

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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey Replaces Top Military Chiefs - New York Times

Masoud Barzani, center, in the village of Barzan, Erbil, Iraq on July 31, 2017.

Iraqi Kurds run the risk of armed conflict with government forces and alienating neighbors if they push ahead with a proposed referendum on independence, according to a senior adviser to Turkeys president.

Leaders of the semi-autonomous and oil-rich Kurdish region in Iraqs north have for years flirted with a complete break from Baghdads rule. They renewed the calls after a sweeping 2014 offensive by Islamic State routed the Iraqi army, bringing the extremists to the Kurds borders. The plan for a Sept. 25 plebiscite -- to be followed by another for a new parliament and president on Nov. 6. -- drew the ire of Iraqs government, the U.S. and Turkey, which worries sovereignty would encourage its own Kurdish insurgents.

The referendum is a prescription for deepening the areas problems, Ilnur Cevik, who advises Recep Tayyip Erdogan on foreign policy, said in an interview on Wednesday. As well as the potential for war with Iraq, it would also alienate Turkey, Iran, all those who support the Kurds, he said. They will say theres a Kurdish pocket in the heart of Arab land, and they will oppose it.

Sunni power Turkey has enjoyed closer ties to the Kurds than with the Shiite-led central government in Baghdad, which is backed by Iran, providing a key route to market for the Kurdish oil industry. But the chaos that could follow the break-up of OPECs second-biggest oil producer, and Turkeys domestic security concerns, mean it has opposed Kurdish statehood.

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During the 2003 U.S. invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, Turkey came close to sending troops into northern Iraq to prevent the Kurds extending their borders to oil-rich Kirkuk, home to many ethnic Turkmen. Erdogans government showed little concern as Iraqi Kurds took parts of the city and its environs to push back Islamic State, but it is now urging dialogue between Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani and his Iraqi counterpart Haider al-Abadi to resolve disputes.

Kurdish advances in northern Syria as Islamic State has been pushed back have only strengthened Turkeys determination to oppose independence for Iraqs Kurds.

In a speech marking the third anniversary of a notorious Islamic State campaign, the prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government,Nechirvan Barzani, said Kurds had tried every way with Iraq but we have completely lost hope. The vote will be a call for freedom from subjugation and slavery, the Kurdish Rudaw news agency on Thursday reported him as saying.

Other senior Kurdish officials have in the past been more circumspect, arguing that the primary aim of a vote would be to ensure greater self-determination rather than outright independence.

Cevik laid much of the blame at Baghdads door, accusing successive Iraqi governments of policy mistakes that first alienated Sunni Arabs and encouraged al-Qaeda and then Islamic State to take over Sunni areas, and also triggered Kurdish disenchantment.

Denying the Kurds sufficient funding has exacerbated financial and social problems in the enclave, he said. Massoud Barzani has been forced into a corner and now mistakenly sees a declaration of independence as the golden prescription to get the Kurds out of this mess, Cevik said.

The Kurds are independently developing oil reserves they say may total 45 billion barrels -- equivalent to almost a third of the deposits in the rest of Iraq, according to BP Plc data.

The U.S. has joined those opposing the plan for a vote in September. Brett McGurk, the U.S. special envoy to the coalition against Islamic State, said last month the ballot could hamper the war against the extremists and destabilize the region. Weve made those views very clear, he said July 13, a week after meeting Iraqi and Kurdish leaders in Baghdad.

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Kurds' Statehood Vote Could Spark Conflict, Erdogan Aide Warns - Bloomberg

Protestors in Istanbul march in opposition to Erdogan. Photo: Emrah Oprukcu/NurPhoto

It has become normal for George Orwell to creep into political conversations in Turkey: the parallels are too numerous to resist.

A year on from a failed coup attempt, more than 150,000 people have been arrested, fired, or driven into self-imposed exile. The group President Erdogan accuses of orchestrating the revolt are the shadowy followers of an Islamic preacher called Fethullah Gulen. Turks are told that they act as if they are seculardrinking alcohol and wearing revealing clothesto cover their real pious identities. Consequently, anyone could find the finger of blame pointed at them. Being in possession of a one-dollar bill bearing a certain serial number has been enough to land some people in prison; for others, it was wearing a t-shirt printed with the word Hero (both are claimed to be secret signs that Gulens followers use to communicate between themselves). Book dumping became common as the crackdown hitno-one wants to be caught with one of Gulens tomes on their shelf.

Meanwhile, the justice system is in meltdown. More than 4,000 of those who have been purged are from the judiciary, slashing its manpower by a quarter at the exact moment that thousands of coup cases are beginning to move through the courts. Many of the 50,000 being held in prison are yet to find out exactly what they are accused of. In court, the prosecutions case is often just a chronology of all that happened on the night of the coup.

I travel to drab concrete neighbourhoods at the end of Istanbuls metro lines to meet the people caught up in the purge. They have often retreated into the shadows, shunned by friends and family members who either believe the accusations against them, or are scared of being tarred by association. They tell me their ways of coping; one woman, discharged from her job and now living in fear of arrest, has turned to God and started covering her head.

After my dismissal, I started to study the Koran again. Gulen people have the tendency to do this, but I dont care because the people dont care about me, she said. When I was first trying it [the headscarf] I tried different styles. I thought I looked too much like an AKP supporter (Erdogans ruling party). We all have prejudices.

Back in my central Istanbul neighbourhood, with its tattoo shops and small dogs and hipsters, the drinking and good times continue. Most Turks believe that the Gulenists were involved in the coup attemptthey had already spent years infiltrating Turkeys bureaucracy and security services. A decade ago, Erdogan and Gulen were allies (of sorts) and the government turned a blind eye to the groups growing power. The Gulenists used their positions to wiretap phones and pursue spurious cases against secular opponents and high-ranking military officers, and the government acquiesceduntil December 2013, when the relationship combusted.

That was the first time I heard of Fethullah Gulen: when the streets of my neighbourhood exploded into a riot of Molotov cocktails and tear gas. A police investigation had revealed a huge corruption scandal, involving the sons of Erdogan and three of his government ministers; gold deals and Iranian sanctions-busting. The state-owned Halk Bank was implicated, and its branches were smashed up in the protests. Graffiti covered the streets: Thieves everywhere, it read. It looked like the government might fallbut everyone knew that the scandal was not all it seemed. Within days, Erdogan had accused Gulen of orchestrating it, sacked hundreds of high-ranking police officers, and clung on to power by his fingernails.

Even during the height of the protests, those partaking knew what might happen.We fear that we may be seen as acting with the Gulenists, one young woman told me. Actually, we want the people of Turkey to have the power.

How prophetic, I think now as I look back on my notes from those protests, almost 4 years ago. Everyone knows that Erdogan and his party have questions to answer about their relationship with the Gulenists. But everyone has also learnt the rules. Dont criticise. Dont question. Keep quiet.

But there are people who refuse to keep quiet, and the government doesnt know what to do with them. Last week, 17 employees of theCumhuriyetnewspapera secular title staunch in its opposition to both Erdogan and Gulenwent on trial, accused of aiding terror groups including the Gulenists. The journalists in the dock included Ahmet Sik, an investigative reporter who has previously served a year in prison for his expose of the Gulenists back in 2011, before Erdogan started his war on the group. There is another loop in this Gordian knot: the prosecutor who brought the case againstCumhuriyetis now himself accused of links to the Gulenists.

Siks defence statement, on the third day of the trial, was a raging indictment of the government.

Now, they act as if they had nothing to do with the transformation of the Gulen movement, which was undeniably one of the parties involved in the bloody coup attempt, into a monster, he said. They want us to keep silent about their guilt and to not tell the truth. They are using the blood of the victims killed by the putschists as a demagogic part of a cheap and shallow political strategy. Becausethose who hold power in their hands have only one goal in mind: to continue their totalitarian rule no matter what.

The judge was due to deliver the verdict on Friday evening. Instead, he postponed it until September. Seven of theCumhuriyetdefendants were released on bail, but Sik remains in detentionand the prosecutor is bringing fresh charges against him for his defence statement.

Orwell would think it too far-fetched, a friend observed over dinner that evening.Turkeys pro-government press has said little about the trial. Perhaps even they realise it is pushing the boundaries of credibility.

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In Erdogan's Turkey, the references to George Orwell are becoming more numerous - Prospect

US National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster (R) speaks at a press briefing with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin at the White House in Washington, DC, July 31, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

US President Donald Trumps national security adviser, General H. R. McMaster, has awkwardly dodged a question about Washingtons dual policy regarding the recent political developments in Venezuela and Turkey.

On Monday, the US Treasury Department imposed new financial sanctions on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a day after the oil-rich nation cast their ballots on electing a new assembly tasked with rewriting the constitution.

During a White House press briefing about the new bans, a journalist asked McMaster whether there was a difference between what happened in Venezuela and a similar attempt by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to expand his constitutional powers a short while back.

President Trump congratulated President Erdogan on that and he even later came to the US and his people beat protesters in front of his embassy, the journalist said, referring to a brutal crackdown of anti-Erdogan protesters by the Turkish presidents bodyguards in Washington, DC, on May 17.

McMaster claimed that what happened in Venezuela amounted to an abrogation of the constitution but refused to answer the question about Turkey.

One difference is you see the end of the constitution of Venezuela, he said. And this is happening obviously at an accelerated pace in the recent months in the Maduro regime.

But this is a process that has taken really two regimes to really restrict Venezuelan democracy, he added.

Ignoring the journalist's calls to address Erdogans case, McMaster said the sanctions put Maduro in the same exclusive club as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and North Koreas leader Kim Jung-un.

In April, Ankara held a referendum on changes in the constitution, expanding the powers of Erdogan after 51 percent of voters voted Yes in what the opposition called a fraudulent election.

The European Union (EU) had warned Turkey that it should either cancel the proposed constitution overhaul or forfeit its request to join the bloc.

Trump, on the other hand, personally called his Turkish counterpart to congratulate him.

With regards to Venezuela, however, Trump had said before the Sunday election that he would not recognize its outcome.

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McMaster glosses over question comparing Erdogan to Maduro - Press TV

Just few days ago, a chilling footage in one of the international television stations brought to the fore the ugly memories of the July 15, 2016, aborted coup in Turkey. It was during the one years commemoration of the coup, which saw to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowing to rip the heads off of terror groups and plotters who tried to put an end to his more than a decade-long dictatorial rule.

More than 250 innocent Turks paid with their lives to ensure that Erdogan rule was not truncated by the coup plotters on that fateful July 15, 2016, while the President hibernated and disappeared into an unknown destination.

Like many autocratic leaders, Erdogan was quick to blame members of opposition and sympathizers of Gulen Movement for the coup attempt. He particularly singled out the United States-based Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen as the mastermind of the coup, even when it is on record that the highly-respected cleric publicly condemned the coup when it was still on.

Though the July 15 failed coup was not the first in that country, the many conspiratorial theories and the Turkish government heightened brutality aftermath of the coup has continued to tilt my belief that the coup was just a well-crafted master script which was activated by Erdogan to silence critics and any finger of opposition in Turkey. Yes, many leaders in the past have used phantom coups to consolidate their grip on power by jailing perceived political enemies and sometimes send them to the hangs man noose.

During the dark days of military regime in Nigeria in the mid-1990s, many influential figures like General Olusegun Obasanjo, who later became President, General Shehu YarAdua, and a host of other critics of government were all sent to jail over a coup that was believed to be designed to topple the government of late General Sani Abacha. Hence, the recent revelation by Sweden-based Stockholm Centre for Freedom (SCF) in on the Turkeys coup has further cemented my belief that some power-drunk leaders can go to any length to perpetrate themselves in office.

According to the international Centre, last years failed coup attempt in Turkey is nothing but a false flag orchestrated by Turkeys autocratic President Recep Tayip Erdogan and his henchmen to create a pretext for a mass persecution of critics and opponents in a state of perpetual emergency.

The centre in a new detailed study titled July 15:Erdogans Coup, said from available data, the coup indictments, testimonials in court trials, private interviews, reviews of military expert opinions and other evidence collected by researchers, it is fairly confident that this attempt did not even qualify a coup bid in any sense of military mobilization which was unusually limited in numbers, confined in few cities, poorly managed, defied the established practices, tradition, rules of engagement and standard operating procedures in Turkish military.

This was a continuation of a series of false flags that were uncovered in the last couple of years under the authoritarian rule of Erdogan regime and it was certainly the bloodiest one, the centre said.

Erdogan appears to have tapped on widely circulated coup rumours in Turkish capital and staged own show to steal wind and set up his opposition for a persecution, the President of SCF, Abdullah Bozkurt, was quoted to have said.

Judging by Erdogan antecedents on how he had blatantly used the term parallel state to badmouth and demonise sympathisers of the Gulen movement in Turkey but without getting the desired result of suppressing them, the coup could as well be the best bet and the smokescreen of his government to silence the group and other opposition elements. This was what played out during the referendum in Turkey which was carried out under the emergency power of the president. Erdogan won big time by securing imperial presidency, consolidating his gains, stifling the opposition and even launching cross border military incursion into Syria for which he had been itching for too long.

The Turkish president, who appear to have unquenchable penchant for brutalising and detaining those who dare have a different political orientation from the one shares by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), reportedly called the July 15, 2016 coup attempt as a gift from God, as he now wields absolute power to do and undo anything he wishes to the detriment of the freedom of the Turkish people.

Today in Turkey, most media organisations and private schools have been shut down, thousands of public servants kicked out from government service, thousands of judges, teachers, doctors, military officers all thrown out from work. Many more who are not so lucky, including journalists, members of opposition, among others are now in detention without trial for allegedly taking part in the coup with no any iota of concrete evidence linking them to it.

Erdogan may have succeeded in silencing his opponents by carefully reaping the political capital of the July 15 coup attempt, but surely, he cannot come clean of involvement in the coup no matter how black he would paint those he accused of being behind it.

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Turkey's Erdogan and July 15 coup - The Nation Newspaper