Turkey's top security board said on Monday that the country would continue to fight terrorism with determination and called for national unity as tensions rose in the country, Xinhua reported.
Cabinet members and military leaders joined a pre-scheduled meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) on Monday and "stressed Turkey's determination to continue the fight against terrorism that targets national unity, integrity and peace," according to a statement issued after the meeting.
"The council reaffirms its faith that the citizens will act with common sense in accordance with contemporary democracy and rule of law and avoid attitudes that would hurt the brotherhood," said the statement.
The words came after police operations against some members of a recently banned pro-Kurdish party sparked protests in the country's Kurdish-populated southeast over the weekend, in which clashes reportedly erupted between protestors and security forces.
Police detained dozens of Democratic Society Party (DTP) members during raids against an urban arm of the separatist Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, in several southeastern cities on Thursday.
Among the detainees, 23 people, including seven mayors, were charged by prosecutors with links to the PKK branch on Friday.
Turkey's Constitutional Court banned the DTP on Dec. 11 on charges of links with the PKK.
The council's statement didn't mention a recent investigation into an alleged plot to assassinate a deputy prime minister, which fueled rumors about tensions between the military and the government. Newspapers have said the issue would be talked over during Monday's meeting.
The probe was launched after two military officers were reportedly caught on a street near Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc's house in Ankara on Dec. 19 on suspicion of trying to assassinate the senior official.
The General Staff said last week the two officers were collecting intelligence of another military officer living in the same area who was suspected of leaking confidential information.
Prosecutors and a judge looking into the case launched a third search at a military headquarters in Ankara on Monday after conducting two searches on Friday and Saturday, the newspaper Hurriyet Daily News reported on its website.
Eight military officers, including the two caught on Dec. 19 near Arinc's house, were detained on Saturday.
During Monday's meeting, the council also discussed developments in Iraq, peace talks in Cyprus and its European Union membership bid, according to the statement.