Ten people have been arrested as Turkish police used warning shots and tear gas to break up a rally by a Kurdish party that authorities are trying to ban.

Police broke up demonstrators chanting slogans in favour of Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Turkey's NTV news channel reported.

As many as 2,000 demonstrators loyal to Ocalan rallied in the city of Van on Saturday.

The demonstration was organised by the country's main Kurdish political movement, the Democratic Society Party (DTP) – a group accused by Ankara of colluding with PKK fighters.

On Friday, prosecutors had began proceedings to ban the DTP, saying that the party had become a "base for activities which aim at the independence of the state and its indivisible unity" through its links with the PKK.

The DTP, which holds 20 seats in Turkey's 550-member parliament, rejects charges of links to the PKK.

However, it has come under fire for refusing the brand the PKK as a terrorist group and for voicing sympathy for the party.

Last month, the Turkish government won parliamentary authorisation to order troops into northern Iraq in case of a PKK offensive.

Turkey has subsequently massed an estimated 100,000 troops and large amounts of military equipment on the border with Iraq.

The United States and Iraq are opposed to any cross-border strike.

More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984 when the PKK began its fight for autonomy in Turkey's mainly Kurdish east and southeast.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Kurd protester holds up a photo of jailed rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan during a meeting of the DTP (The Democratic Society Party) in Nusaybin. [AFP]

Al-Jazeera