The celebrations, held under the slogan "A Strong Army, A Strong Turkey", were however overshadowed by news of an attack blamed on Kurdish rebels that killed four soldiers in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast.

Earlier in the day, some 8,000 troops -- nearly double the number in previous events -- marched in the capital Ankara before President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, army chief Ilker Basbug in a ceremony marking a military victory against invading Greek troops in 1922.

Nearly 50 aircraft, among them F-4 and F-16 fighter jets, flew past the arena and dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles rolled by in a display designed to underline the army's strength and the country's unity.

The army's decision to play up this year's celebrations comes as the government seeks to win public support for planned reforms to expand the freedoms of the Kurdish community and end the violence with Kurdish rebels.

Ankara has remained tight-lipped on the content of the plan, but has stressed that democratic reforms lay at the heart of ending the fighting with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The Kurdish conflict "cannot be resolved only through military means," Erdogan said in a televised monthly address to the nation on Thursday. "It is a social, economic and cultural issue.... Beyond all, it is an issue of democracy."

While opposition parties argue that broader rights for the country's Kurds would pave the way for Turkey's disintegration, Basbug warned earlier this week that the planned reforms must not endanger unity.

The army "respects cultural diversity", but opposes the politicisation of the issue, Basbug said Tuesday, underlining a constitutional article that describes Turkey as being an indivisible whole with Turkish as its language.

The general was greeted with patriotic slogans when he joined flag-waving spectators after Sunday's parade as the crowd broke into applause and chanted, "Turkey is Turkish and will stay Turkish! The motherland is indivisible!".

"Nobody can break Turkey up," Basbug told a young girl in tears who said she was opposed to the government's plan, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Some 45,000 people have been killed since 1984 when the PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and much of the international community, picked up arms for self-rule in the southeast.

Last month, the PKK announced that they were extending a ceasefire in their campaign until September 1 in anticipation of a peace plan to be announced by their jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan.

There are still occasional clashes in the southeast although their frequency has decreased considerably.

On Sunday, PKK rebels hurled a hand grenade on a military unit on a security sweep near the town of Semdinli in Hakkari province, killing four soldiers, a security source said.

Turkey has in recent years granted the Kurds a series of cultural liberties, including the launch of a public Kurdish-language television.

Kurdish activists however say the reforms are inadequate to encourage PKK militants to lay down arms.

A senior ruling party lawmaker said last week the Kurdish language could be introduced as an elective course in Turkish schools as part of the new plan.

Media reports say the government may also consider restoring the Kurdish names of villages that have been renamed, lifting a ban on using Kurdish in political posters and modifying the definition of Turkish nationality in the constitution.

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