Several demonstrations by pro-Kurdish groups have been dispersed since the beginning of the week in southeastern Turkey, including a march on Tuesday to the border with Syria, where Damascus had launched an offensive against Kurdish fighters in the northeast.

"In order to preserve public order and security throughout our province, meetings, protest marches and press statements, as well as the installation of tents, posters and banners, are prohibited for a period of four days" from Friday until Monday, the governor's office said in a statement.

Pro-Kurdish groups including the DEM party -- the third largest force in the parliament -- called for a rally on Sunday in support of the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan.

Following Ocalan's call from jail, the PKK formally renounced its armed struggle against Turkey in May last year, drawing a line under four decades of violence that claimed some 50,000 lives.

But the tension in Syria between the government and Kurdish fighters spilled over into Turkey which has a Kurdish minority.

The defence ministry in Damascus announced a four-day ceasefire starting Tuesday evening.