Turkey's military today stated its determination to fight terrorism and said it possessed the right to respond to attacks by Kurdish separatists.
The statement, posted online, also referred directly to comments by army chief Gen Yasar Buyukanit two months ago, in which he urged the government to allow troops to cross into northern Iraq to crush the rebels.
"The Turkish Armed Forces have an unshakeable determination to fight terrorism, and it is an incontrovertible reality that we will respond to these kind of attacks," the statement said, referring to a series of Kurdish rebel strikes against civilian and military targets in Turkey.
The army and government have been increasingly angered by a series of deadly attacks on civilian and military targets in Turkey conducted by members of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party operating out of mainly Kurdish Northern Iraq.
"The time has come to see the real nature of these incidents," said the General Staff statement, attacking unspecified individuals and organisations it said used notions of democracy and freedom as a "screen" to defend terrorism.
The comments appeared especially aimed at the European Union, which Turkey hopes to join. The army has said EU-inspired reforms have hampered its efforts to combat terrorism.
It also indirectly criticised liberals favouring more rights for Turkey's ethnic minorities, saying they undermined the security and unity of the nation.