The National Security Council (MGK), which brings together the civilian leadership and the top army brass, convenes for a routine monthly session on Wednesday.

"In my oppinion everything is on track and there is no extraordinary situation," Culture Minister Erkan Mumcu told Anatolia.

The MGK meeting comes after army chiefs boycotted a reception by the parliamentary speaker whose wife wears the Islamist-style veil.

Turkey's powerful military, the self-declared guardian of the secular system, has intervened in the country's politics on several occasions in the past and was behind the removal of the first Islamist government in 1997.

Justice Minister Cemil Cicek accused the media of fanning a climate of tensions ahead of the meeting.

"You are the one to partly provoke this expectation. There is no use of turning every MGK meeting into a derby match," Cicek told reporters.

The MGK is the platform through which Turkey's military puts its weight in political decision-making.

SPACE.WIRE