Kurdish guerrillas have killed five Turkish soldiers in the last two days, security officials said on Monday, while police arrested dozens at a protest demanding release of Kurd rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan.
Violence has picked up in Turkey's mainly Kurdish south-east, with the Turkish military launching large operations against the rebels in the mountains while demonstrations by separatist sympathisers in the towns have led to clashes with police.
The Turkish main opposition leader Deniz Baykal demanded an emergency recall of parliament to discuss "the increasingly intense atmosphere of violence".
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels killed four soldiers and wounded one more in the south-eastern province of Sirnak on Sunday. Another soldier was killed in a PKK attack on a gendarmerie post in the province of Bingol.
Separately, police arrested 44 people at a demonstration in support of jailed PKK leader Ocalan in the south-eastern city of Sanliurfa, the CNN Turk Web site said.
Turkish leaders accuse rebel Kurds of stirring up strife so as to influence European Union accession talks due to start on October 3.
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