Nato is to hold an emergency meeting at the request of Turkey on Monday as efforts to end the country's decades-long war with the Kurds appeared to be on the brink of collapse.
The move follows a series of attacks on police officers, soldiers and military buildings in the country’s predominantly Kurdish southeast.
Two Turkish soldiers died in a roadside ambush in the province of Diyarbakir on Saturday in the latest round of violence, three days after Kurdish militants claimed responsibility for the death of two police officers.
Security sources said Turkey attacked Kurdish insurgent camps in Iraq for a second night on Sunday.
A precarious ceasefire to end the conflict between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Turkish state began in March 2013 and later saw the partial withdrawal of PKK militants from Turkish territory.
But PKK figures said on Saturday conditions supporting the cessation of hostilities “have been eliminated” after Turkish bombing raids on the PKK in Iraq and the detention of more than 575 people suspected of having links to the group.
Turkey may be emboldened by last week's agreement with Washington to let the US use airbases in southeastern Turkey to target Islamic State.
“We strongly condemn the PKK’s recent terrorist attacks within Turkey, and respect our Nato ally Turkey’s right to self-defence,” said a US national security council spokesman.
Kurdish party
Critics of the government’s operation against the PKK say it is part of an attempt to delegitimise the Kurdish-rooted Peoples’
Democratic Party
(HDP), which entered parliament for the first time in June.
The HDP reached the 10 per cent threshold required to enter parliament largely by winning support from conservative Kurds who previously voted for the ruling AK Party.
Several ministers have claimed the HDP is the political wing of the PKK, regarded as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the EU and US; the HDP denies the claim.
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg called the emergency meeting under article 4 of the organisation’s treaty, which says any member can request talks whenever its territorial integrity, independence or security is threatened.
– (Additional reporting: Reuters)