EU Warns Army in Turkey Dispute

The European Union told the powerful Turkish military to keep out of politics yesterday and warned that Ankara's bid to join the union hinged on "core" values of "civilian supremacy" over the armed forces in a democracy.

The power struggle between the government and the secularist establishment over the election of Abdullah Gul, the foreign minister, as the new president abated with the call by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, for early elections. The European commission backed the move as a way out of the crisis and called on all sides to accept the ruling of the Turkish constitutional court, which invalidated last week's parliamentary ballot on a new head of state.

"The European commission welcomes early elections to ensure political stability and democratic development," said Johannes Laitenberger, a commission spokesman.

Mr Erdogan sought yesterday to have parliamentary elections brought forward from November to June 24 after the opposition used boycotts, demonstrations and warnings of intervention from the military to prevent the presidency going to Mr Gul, a close associate of Mr Erdogan. However, the electoral board said July 22 was the earliest that the polls could be held.

Constitutionally, parliament elects the president and Mr Erdogan's mildly Islamist and reformist AKP party has a comfortable majority. But the opposition boycotted the vote last week and on Tuesday the constitutional court ruled that the parliamentary session was inquorate.

In a robust response, Mr Erdogan first brushed off the challenge from the military and yesterday described the court ruling as "a bullet fired at democracy".