How does the military feel about the AK Party victory?

He was referring to the landslide victory of the ruling AK Party following Sunday's early general elections and was accused by the military-led secular elite of having the goal of altering on the country's secular character by imposing Islamic ideals on the nation.

But unlike general misperceptions, the AK Party received the votes of not only the poorest segments of society but also those who did not hear any convincing messages coming from the other parties winning the elections -- mainly on the improvement of the economy, whose defects have been strongly hurting society.

Time will show us whether the secular bureaucratic elite -- both military and civilian -- will learn any lessons from Sunday's outcome, but my initial impression from the military over the AK Party victory was not positive and I did not expect the opposite bearing in mind the negative stance of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) toward civilian rulers in general.

As readers will remember, the TSK, which has staged two military coups and a memorandum as well as a "post modern coup" in the 84-year history of the republic, issued an "e-memorandum" on the Web site of the Turkish General Staff on April 27, effectively preventing AK Party candidate Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül from becoming president to replace the incumbent Ahmet Necdet Sezer.

Now that the AK Party has enough votes to establish a single-party government once again, though it has to seek compromise with all the other parties and Kurdish deputies to be represented in the new parliament, the first reaction to Sunday's elections came from retired Gen. Edip Başer, who was earlier removed from his post as the Turkish envoy of the US-Iraq-Turkey tripartite mechanism established to address Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) problem.

Speaking to the Italian La Repubblica daily in an interview this week, Başer did not hesitate to in saying "if the situation gets out of control in the election of a president, the military might intervene again," but refrained from elaborating further. He did, however, hint at the military's continued opposition to seeing a president like Gül, whose wife wears a headscarf. According to the same daily, Başer said Gül's previous remarks had left an image that he is against the republic, i.e., the fundamental values of the republic's secular principles.

But Başer also stated that there is no other way but to respect to the people's choices in Sunday's elections, hailing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's messages of reconciliation.

What retired Gen. Başer told the Italian daily can be described as a sort of reflection of the TSK's initial views on the outcome of Sunday's elections.

As an answer to some questions marks that may emerge in the minds of some readers, I should say that nowadays retired generals are also tasked with displaying the general views of the military.

In fact the ex-general that I quoted in my introduction expressed views similar to Başer, except for his warning of an intervention.

My source is, in fact, supposed to be a liberal-minded officer, but despite this he displayed a more hawkish view on Sunday's elections when he stated his extreme uneasiness over the AK Party's victory.

But he also hinted that even if the General Staff refrains nowadays from making an official statement about the outcome, retired officers will have their views heard in the media, displaying their uneasiness over the election results and, particularly if the AK Party attempts to impose a president from within the party.

But he also told me that there was an existing mechanism between Prime Minister Erdoğan and Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt under which they get together and talked about thorny issues. My source was referring to the Dolmabahçe Palace meeting that took place between the two soon after the e-memorandum was issued -- nobody knows about the meeting's contents.