The routine monthly session of the National Security Council (MGK), Turkey's top policy-making body through which the army throws its weight in politics, is the generals' first encounter with the government since last week when they boycotted a prominent reception in parliament.

Speculation has been rife that the meeting might result in the army issuing a stern warning to the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a former Islamist maverick, to toe the line.

But senior government officials denied any tensions and accused the media of fanning expectations of friction.

"The MGK meeting will produce a compromise and not a crisis. Nobody should have any doubts about that," Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin said in an interview with the Vatan daily Wednesday.

"We, the government, are not seeking a new (Islamist) direction for the country... The state is sensitive on certain issues and of course the government is taking them into account," he said.

The military, the self-declared custodian of Turkey's secular system, was behind the removal of the first Islamist-led government in 1997.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the offspring of a banned Islamist movement, has recently attracted criticism for allegedly deviating from the country's secular principles.

Turkey's top generals, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and the opposition Republican People's Party -- all staunch secularists -- boycotted a reception hosted by Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc last Wednesday amid a spat over wearing the Islamist-style headscarf.

Arinc's veiled wife shunned the cocktail so as not to antagonize the pro-secular establishment, but the wives of several other MPs turned up wearing headscarves.

Though Islam is the majority religion, Turkey bans headscarves from public offices and universities where they are viewed as a declaration of support for political Islam.

The boycott, however, was seen not only as a protest over the headscarf but a warning that the army and president were unhappy with government policies.

The AKP, which came to power six month ago, has recently come under fire for allegedly appointing pro-Islamist cronies to government offices.

It has also stirred a controversy for asking Turkish embassies to support Milli Gorus, an expatriate Islamist group long suspected of promoting extremism.

Observers said the MGK meeting was unlikely to result in a public warning to the government, but suggested it would mark the beginning of a close monitoring process by the army.

"If the government continues to take the issues lightheartedly, there will be escalation," said political commentator Mehmet Ali Kislali, who is known to have good access to the army.

Media reports said both the government and the generals had prepared dossiers to support their arguments at the talks.

"Armed with dossiers for the critical MGK meeting," a Vatan headline said.

At a landmark MGK meeting in 1997, the military launched a harsh secularist campaign that forced Turkey's first Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan to step down.

Erdogan and many of his aides were members of Erbakan's movement.

They say they had broken with their past, but many here believe the AKP still harbors a secret Islamist agenda.

MGK meetings are chaired by the president. Participants include the prime minister, his deputies as well as the ministers of defense, foreign affairs, justice and interior affairs. The army is represented by the chief of general staff and his top four aides.

The recent spat comes amid calls by the European Union on Ankara to decrease the army's role in politics in order to boost its democratic credentials.

SPACE.WIRE