"A cross-border operation means more bloodshed, war. We do not want that. We have already suffered a lot," said Metin Selcuk Ozalap, a 23-year-old who sells pirated copies of the latest Hollywood movies in the centre of this town of some 80,000 people.

"What we need here is investment and business opportunities," he said.

Cizre, in Sirnak province, is at the heart of bloody conflict between the Turkish army and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged an armed campaign for self-rule in southeastern Turkey since 1984 at the cost of more than 37,000 lives.

Faced with mounting PKK violence, the government last week obtained parliamentary authorization to launch military strikes against some 3,500 PKK rebels sheltered in the autonomous, Kurdish-run north of Iraq.

Turkey's threat rattled nerves in the United States and Iraq, which strongly oppose a military operation that could destabilize the only relatively calm part of the war-torn country.

But it is Turkey's own Kurdish community that feels most threatened.

"It is always us who bear the brunt. The majority of families here have relatives either in the military or with the PKK," said Idris Serim, a 39-year-old taxi driver. "We do not want either side to die."

Many fear that a full-scale incursion could see fighting between the army and the rebels -- mainly limited to the rugged countryside -- spread across the region and into urban centres as it did in 1992-1993, at the peak of the PKK rebellion.

"As a child, I grew up with conflict. We couldn't go out after sunset and we'd listen to gunfire at night," said Tahir Acar, 28, as he supervised the workers renovating his clothing shop. "We don't want to go back to that just as we start to see some improvement."

In a bid to boost its bid to join the European Union, Turkey recently abolished 15 years of emergency rule in the region and introduced reforms allowing Kurdish-language classes and broadcasts.

A cross-border operation would also have a deep economic impact, forcing the closure of the Habur border post with Iraq in a region where the livelihoods of many depend on cross-border trade.

The fighting has hit traditional agriculture and livestock farming in the region hard, forcing many villagers to flee their homes for the cities, where they contribute to greater unemployment.

Nowadays, the backbone of the regional economy is the trucks that go to northern Iraq with consumer goods and return with cheap fuel.

"Habur is our only source of income. What are people going to do if that is closed? Go and join the rebels in the mountains?" Ozalp asked.

Ramazan Ekmekci, whose mobile phone business depends largely on trade with northern Iraq, drew an even bleaker picture.

"Where there is no income, there will be rebellion," Ekmekci said. "If the people fall for provocations and dig up the weapons they buried, no one -- not Turkey, not the United States -- can stop them."

Many say the region's problems cannot be solved through military means but by Ankara negotiating with the rebels and giving more democratic rights to its Kurdish community.

"We don't want to break away from Turkey and set up our own state. Turks and Kurds have been living together for centuries," said Ismail Kurtulus, the 34-year-old owner of an electronics shop.

"We only want our own identity," he said, saying he wants Ankara to drop its flat refusal to talk with a group it considers a terrorist organization.