ANKARA - Turkish Chief of General Staff Gen. Yasar Buyukanit handed over his post to Gen. Ilker Basbug with a ceremony in Ankara on Thursday.
Gen. Buyukanit said that during his term in office, he focused his studies on fight against terrorism as well as modernization and training of Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). He added that the target of his studies was to bring all modernities to TSK rapidly.
Gen. Buyukanit said that he acted with the belief that team performance was more important than individual performance.
He said that Turkey was a stability and balance element with its secular and democratic structure in the middle of clashes for economic and political interests.
Gen. Buyukanit said that TSK could fulfill all missions with its determined manner and unique discipline.
Gen. Buyukanit said that it was important to consider security policies regarding Middle East in integrity, not on basis of each countries.
He said that the problems in the Middle East stemmed from basic policies of several countries, adding that it was impossible to produce healthy security policies without understanding the policies of those countries.
Gen. Buyukanit said that not restoring the security and stability in Iraq accelerated terrorism threat in the region.
Gen. Buyukanit said that Black Sea was also tried to be made a ball of problems, adding that Turkey had to be very sensitive in such a condition.
Regarding the developments in Eastern Mediterranean, Gen. Buyukanit said that Turkey was uneasy about the exploration and management of oil reserves as well as efforts to widen sea authority zones in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Gen. Buyukanit also said that operations of TSK in the north of Iraq seriously hampered the terrorist organization.
Delivering a speech at the ceremony, Gen. Ilker Basbug also said a certain part of the Turkish society believed that religious thoughts were quite influential in the development of a new cultural identity and life style nowadays.
"They are quite concerned about such developments. These concerns should be taken into consideration," Basbug said.
Basbug also said that several communities, which were getting stronger day by day, were trying to conduct the economy, shape the socio-political life and express their social identities with a life style based on religion.
"The measures to be taken against such formation can only succeed if this social reality is analyzed in an accurate way," he added.
Basbug also said that the "nation state" structure of Turkey was not a debatable issue, as such structure was directly related to the country`s presence.
Noting that "citizenship" was the basic opinion of the nation state structure, Basbug said such opinion had no connection with racial, ethnic and religious elements, adding that attempts to form a connection between them would not yield to positive results.
"Discussing and trying to weaken the nation state structure means declining Turkey`s integrity," Basbug said.
(DO-GC)
(MIL)