He portrays himself as a moderate religious leader, but videotape evidence leaked last year showed him urging his supporters in the civil service to wait for orders to undermine the system from within. Blocked decree President Ahmet Necdet Sezer has twice refused to approve a decree which would allow the dismissal of thousands of public employees suspected of Islamist or separatist leanings. The draft is now to be submitted to parliament when its summer recess ends in October. Correspondents say the general's intervention will increase pressure on parliament to approve the proposals for a purge. Mr Kivrikoglu said the military would closely follow the passage of the bill, reports say.
Correspondents say the general's comments are unusually candid for the normally taciturn soldier.
He was speaking to journalists at a reception on the national Victory Day holiday, which commemorates the end of the 1922 war with Greece. The army has staged three coups against elected Turkish governments since 1960. It also spearheaded the campaign to force Turkey's first Islamist prime minister, Necmettin Erbakan, to resign in 1997. Although Turkey is a Muslim country, the state is constitutionally secular, and the army is the cornerstone of the secular establishment. Nazi slave labour payouts begin Links to more Europe stories are at the foot of the page.