Turkey yesterday sought to downplay the crisis caused by the resignations of its top military brass in the latest episode in a fight between the Islamist-rooted government and the staunchly secularist Turkish army.

The military police chief of the country was named acting chief-of-staff and the commander of land forces late on Friday, in a quick move to contain the crisis.

“The president has approved the assignment of military police chief General Necdet Ozel as the land forces commander. General Ozel is deployed as acting chief-of-staff,” the president and prime minister’s offices said in a joint statement.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul, commander-in-chief under the constitution, met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ozel on Friday evening, leading analysts to speculate that Ozel was likely to become the new military chief.

According to previous army practice, an officer should serve as commander of land forces before becoming chief-of-staff, and Ozel is expected to be permanently assigned as chief-of-staff today, local media said.

Gul yesterday insisted that Turkey was not in a crisis over the resignations.

“There is no crisis,” Gul said in his televised remarks. “Without doubt, what we went through yesterday was an extraordinary situation. But everything is now on course and normal procedures will go on,” he said.

Turkey’s entire military command, including chief-of-staff General Isik Kosaner and the commanders of the army, air force and navy resigned last Friday in a row with the government over generals jailed for an alleged coup plot.