ISTANBUL (AP) - Turkey's military has a tradition of interfering in politics, even staging several coups in past decades. But on Wednesday, the chief of the secular armed forces refrained from direct comment on one of his country's most explosive debates: the Islamic head scarf.

Parliament is considering a bill that would lift a ban on female students wearing head scarves at universities, reflecting a conflict between the Islamic-oriented government and military-backed opponents who view the religious attire as a threat to Turkey's secular traditions.
As the debate among lawmakers has intensified in recent days, many Turks wondered whether the military would get involved in a replay of a political crisis last year that derailed the first presidential candidacy of Abdullah Gul, an observant Muslim.
For now, however, Turkey's top general is staying out of the fray even though the military has periodically spoken up against what it views as official moves to undermine secular principles introduced by the national founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
""I know why you are here. You want to know what the military thinks on the headscarf issue,"" Gen. Yasar Buyukanit said to a crush of live broadcast crews that turned up at military headquarters in Ankara, the capital, for his meeting with the Macedonian defense minister.
""There's no one in all levels of the Turkish society who doesn't know what the military's views are,"" Buyukanit said. ""To say anything would be nothing more than stating the obvious. That is why I don't want to say anything.""
The Turkish military rarely elaborates on its decision-making process, and analysts were left to speculate whether Buyukanit's comments signaled a preference to sit out the head scarf debate, or augured a robust intervention, with either public statements or behind-the-scenes lobbying.
""He appears as if he is not stressing the issue, but it means that the military is still resolutely against the head scarf issue,"" said Rusen Cakir, a political analyst with NTV television. ""I believe the military will make its opinion more clear in communications with state institutions in the coming days.""
The military showed no such restraint last year, when it jumped into an acrimonious dispute over Gul's candidacy, issuing a dire warning that secularism was at stake. But the tactic backfired when the government won a landslide in general elections and Gul, whose wife wears a head scarf, became president on a re-try.
The tumultuous year appeared to signal the diminishing political influence of the military in a country with an emboldened class of devout Muslims and aspirations to join the European Union, which says Turkey must do more to keep army generals out of politics.
Since then, tension between the military and the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has eased, and the two have cooperated in the fight against Kurdish rebels based in Iraq. But the military still resembles a parallel institution as much as an apolitical instrument of its civilian leaders.
""The chief of staff's views are his own views,"" Burhan Kuzu, a ruling party legislator and head of the parliamentary constitutional committee, said after Buyukanit's news conference.
The committee is scheduled to discuss the head scarf bill on Friday, and constitutional amendments that would include the lifting of the ban will be debated in parliament next week.
Under the new proposal, female students would be allowed to wear head scarves at universities as long as they tie them under the chin, leaving their faces more exposed.
The attire, which is accepted in barracks and military guest houses and is not necessarily associated with Islam, appears to be aimed at appeasing secularists who view another, tightly-wound version of the head scarf as a direct challenge to the secular state. However, the nuance was unlikely to win over many government opponents.
The government, which characterizes the debate as a freedom of expression issue and says it will uphold secular ideals, has enough support from lawmakers to get the ban lifted. But an opposition party has vowed to challenge the measure in the pro-secular constitutional court if it is passed.