Turkey's efforts to reconcile with its Kurds have been hit by a "crisis of confidence" after freed separatist rebels were given a hero's welcome, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying Saturday.
"A crisis of confidence has emerged," Erdogan told journalists accompanying him on a trip to Pakistan, the NTV news channel reported on its web site.
Erdogan was referring to celebrations in the Kurdish-majority southeast after the release Tuesday of eight militants who crossed from Iraq to Turkey and turned themselves in as a gesture of support for government plans to expand Kurdish freedoms.
Erdogan said the arrival of a second such group, expected next week, had been postponed because of the celebrations, which saw crowds brandish flags of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and play songs praising the 25-year insurgency against Ankara
"Let's take a break," NTV quoted Erdogan as saying. "We will continue the process after reviewing the situation."
He described the festivities as "unwanted developments" which he blamed on the Democratic Society Party, Turkey's main Kurdish political movement.
The rebels belonged to the PKK, which took up arms against Ankara in 1984 at the start of a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives. The group has long taken refuge in rear bases in Kurdish-majority northern Iraq.
The government came under fire for being lenient with the rebels, and the festive welcome they received by tens of thousands of cheering Kurds sparked indignation across a country where the PKK is considered a terrorist organisation.
The militants were part of a 34-strong group, also including Kurdish refugees who had lived in Iraq for years, which the PKK sent as "peace envoys" to Turkey.
"What we are trying to do is to build a wall between our people and the terrorist organisation and prevent the exploitation of our citizens of Kurdish origin... The terrorist organisation cannot be their representative," Erdogan said.
The government has said it is working on a series of reforms to expand Kurdish rights and urged PKK militants to lay down their arms and surrender.
Ankara however rejects dialogue with the PKK and has vowed to pursue military action against the group.
The PKK insists the militants who crossed from Iraq did not "surrender" but arrived as "envoys" to convey the group's conditions for peace, heeding a proposal by jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
