President Abdullah Gül received greetings from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek, Chief of General Staff Gen. Necdet Özel, main opposition Republican People´s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and top state bureaucrats at a traditional ceremony held at the General Staff headquarters.

In previous years, the chief of general staff used to be the one to receive greetings from the president and other dignitaries. Gül received greetings as “the commander-in-chief” of Turkey, a constitutional title for the president of Turkey.

Gül said in an interview published on Sunday that the proposal for the change in Victory Day celebration protocol came from Chief of Staff Gen. Özel, who was appointed to his post after his predecessor requested early retirement last month in protest of arrests of many military commanders as part of court cases investigating anti-government plots involving members of the military.

“This was a suggestion put forth by the chief of General Staff in a meeting we had ahead of the latest National Security Council [MGK]. I also approved it. This is what will be done from now on,” he was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.

The Victory Day is an official holiday in Turkey, which marks victory in the final battle in the Turkish War of Independence in 1922.

In another symbolic change underscoring military´s fading influence over politics, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sat alone at the head of the table during a Supreme Military Council [YAŞ] meeting, contrary to earlier seating arrangements in which the prime minister sat beside the armed forces chief