In recent years, Turkey has eased some restrictions on Kurdish language and culture as part of its bid to join the European Union, but activists say the reforms are insufficient.
PARTY CLOSURE
In a fresh challenge for Turkish democracy, prosecutors said on Friday they had opened a court case against the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) after its calls for autonomy for the southeast region, saying they undermined national unity.
The DTP backs more cultural and political rights for Turkey's large ethnic Kurdish population but is viewed by most Turks as a mouthpiece for the PKK, a charge it denies.
Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people since the group launched its armed insurgency in 1984. Like Turkey, the United States and the European Union also class the PKK as a terrorist organisation.
Despite continued clashes between Turkish security forces and the PKK in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey, both Erdogan's government and powerful army generals say military methods alone will never defeat the PKK or resolve the Kurdish issue.
On Thursday Basbug, Turkey's second highest-ranking general, stressed the need to tackle the root causes behind the PKK's enduring presence in southeast Turkey.
"The fight against terrorism would be much shorter if the state could control participation to the terrorist organisation and took some steps towards dissolving those PKK groups in the mountains," he told reporters, without elaborating.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn repeated his call on Friday for Turkey to avoid any major military action in Iraq.
"Turkey is expected to respect Iraq's territorial sovereignty and to form its actions accordingly in order for not to weaken Iraq's political situation which is improving," Rehn told reporters in Helsinki.
(Additional reporting by Evren Mesci and Hatice Aydogdu in Ankara, Helsinki bureau; Editing by Matthew Jones)
