Demonstrators gathered at the central Taksim square on the European side of the city that straddles the Bosphorus Strait, sometimes disrupting busy weekend traffic, an AFP photgrapher at the scene said.

Carrying Turkish flags, the protestors condemned the country's main Kurdish party, which some officials accuse of collaborating with rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

"We will raid parliament, hang the PKK," the protestors chanted.

The group also chanted insulting slogans about Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the PKK, which has been waging a bloody 23-year campaign for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast.

Similar demonstrations were also held in Ankara, the western cities of Mugla, Bodrum and Manisa, and in Edirne, Kocaeli and Bilecik in the northwest, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The Turkish army announced Sunday that 12 soldiers and 23 PKK rebels were killed in clashes after a rebel ambush of a military patrol in the southeastern province of Hakkari, near the Iraqi border.

The army said 16 soldiers were hurt in the fighting.