ANKARA (Reuters) - A top general said on Monday Turkey faces a growing Islamist threat and he strongly defended the army's right to speak out on the issue despite European Union criticism about military "interference" in politics.
Turkey's military, which drove a government from power as recently as 1997, views itself as the ultimate guardian of the country's secular order, but it has seen its considerable powers trimmed in recent years by EU-inspired reforms.
Why is this important?
The Turkish military has intervened directly in politics four times in the past 50 years, most recently ousting a government it viewed as too Islamist in 1997.
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