"There is no difference between the young and the old in the army. If there is uneasiness, it is throughout the whole of the armed forces," the liberal Milliyet newspaper wrote.

The daily echoed comments made by General Hilmi Ozkok in a press conference on Tuesday who voiced the army's concern at the government's appointment of Islamists to key administrative posts.

The armed forces, which sees itself as the guardian of the country's republican and secular values, has issued several warnings to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) since it came to power in November.

The AKP has its roots in the Islamist movement in Turkey and while the party says it has parted with its Islamist founding principles, many still suspect its members of harbouring a hidden religious agenda.

Newspapers pointed out that Ozkok's press conference, which was barred to pro-Islamist journalists and foreign correspondents, was held on the anniversary of a military putsch on May 27, 1960, the first of three coups launched by the armed forces.

"The government has a great responsibility," an editorialist from the mass-circulation Hurriyet newspaper wrote.

"Some high-ranking members of the AKP should give up trying to divide Turkey's society on the basis of the Islamic religion," he continued.

The editorial appeared to point the finger at the president of Turkey's parliament Bulent Arinc, an AKP member, who caused a spat last month when he announced his wife, who wears an Islamic-style headscarf, would attend an official reception in parliament.

The headscarf is seen by many as a declaration of support for political Islam and it is banned from public offices and universities.

Arinc's wife finally stayed away from the event, but the reception was still boycotted by army generals and other figures from the secular establishment.

The Islamist press for its part criticised Ozkok's position.

"The general stresses that he is attached to democracy, but in democracies do the armed forces have the right to control and sanction the government?" the editorialist of the Yeni Safak newspaper questioned.

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