Turkey's General Staff Chief General Ilker Basbug said on Tuesday that Turkish Armed Forces would not allow any harm to be done to the country's nation-state and unitary structure, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.
His remarks came after opposition parties slashed last week's declaration by the powerful National Security Council (MGK), to support the government's planned package move to solve the Kurdish issue.
The opposition said the MGK's declaration was a tacit approval of contact with the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, which the military long refused to contact or recognize, and was far from clearing public worries over the initiative.
The armed forces would not get engaged in any activity that might lead to direct or indirect contact with the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), which Turkey listed as a terrorist group, or its supporters, Basbug was quoted as saying in a statement.
Neither would the armed forces in anyway accept those taking advantage of the democratic system to show tolerance to terrorists, he noted.
Commenting on the government's Kurdish initiative, Basbug stressed the indivisible unity of the Turkish state in the statement, saying that the military was and would continue to be a party when it comes to defending the national unity, according to the report.
The right of free discussions on the Kurdish initiative should not contain elements that could jeopardize the existence of the state, or drive Turkey into an atmosphere of separation and conflict, Basbug said.
The government announced last month it would reveal a package plan to solve the Kurdish problem by improving democratic rights of the ethnic minority group and urging opposition parties, media and other segments of the society to contribute to the process.
The government has said the Kurdish plan aims to win over its Kurdish citizens and erode support for the PKK.
Basbug said while the military would continue to carry out the fight against the terrorist organisation with determination, it was important for the government to take measures in economic and social and cultural areas to eradicate terrorism.
The government's Kurdish initiative came after the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan announced earlier in July that he would release a "road map" for a solution to the Kurdish problem on Aug. 15, the date on which the PKK first took up arms in 1984 in a bid to create an ethnic homeland in south Eastern Turkey.
The PKK's 25-year-long separatist campaign has fuelled conflicts that have killed some 40,000 people in the country.
However, the main opposition Republican People's Party and the second opposition party Nationalist Movement Party refused to support the Kurdish initiative, saying the move could lead the country to ethnic division and urging the government to reveal details of the package.