Turkey army chief reaffirms headscarf stance

By Evren Mesci

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's top general on Wednesday tacitly reiterated the army's opposition to women wearing the Muslim headscarf at university, a day after the religiously oriented government proposed easing a ban on the attire.

"All segments of Turkish society know what the military thinks about the headscarf issue. I do not want to speak on this matter," General Yasar Buyukanit told reporters in his first public comments since the government announced its plans.

The army views itself as the guarantor of Turkey's secular order and has often warned of what it says is creeping Islamisation under Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's religiously oriented government.

Turkish secularists, including the army, see the headscarf as a threat to the secular order.

But it was not immediately clear whether or how the military might try to stop the planned reform. The army failed last year to block the election of ex-Islamist Abdullah Gul as president despite stiff warnings.

Nobody in today's Turkey seriously expects a military coup, though as recently as 1997 the generals, acting with public support, ousted a government it deemed too Islamist.

Financial markets were little changed after Buyukanit's comments, made during a televised meeting with a Macedonian minister visiting Ankara.