The separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) yesterday took aim at Turkey's tourism industry, warning that foreigners would no longer be safe in Turkish resorts.
"All of Turkey is a war zone now. This includes the Turkish Republic's tourist regions," the PKK's armed wing, the Kurdistan People's Liberation Army (ARGK), said in a statement.
"For the sake of their security it is necessary that no tourists come to Turkey, that the states warn their citizens and that tourism companies make no such bookings," the statement said. The PKK would not be held responsible for the consequences if its warning was not heeded, it added.
"Our struggle has entered a new phase," following the arrest of the PKK leader, Mr Abdullah Ocalan, last month, the statement said. Tourists from Europe especially should stay away, it added.
The PKK, which has waged a 15-year armed campaign for a Kurdish homeland in south-eastern Turkey, carried out a series of attacks on foreign tourists in Turkish resorts in the mid-1990s.
Mr Ocalan's brother, Mr Osman Ocalan, an ARGK commander, recently told a German weekly that the PKK would become "a fireball aimed at the enemy", but that it would not kill tourists. But the ARGK said yesterday the conflict was entering "a very different phase".
Turkey has been hit by a string of bomb attacks since Mr Ocalan's capture on February 15th. A passer-by was injured yesterday in an explosion outside the European Commission's office in Ankara. On Saturday 13 people were killed in Istanbul.
Britain's Foreign Office yesterday said the government was advising tourists that despite the efforts of Turkish security forces their safety could not be guaranteed.