Turkish troops battle Kurdish rebels Turkey has sent thousands of troops into battle against Kurdish rebels as violence in the country's most intractable dispute reaches levels not seen for more than a decade and hopes of a settlement fade. The general staff said late on Thursday it had deployed seven battalions - 5,000 troops - to Semdinli, a remote south-eastern area where Turkish authorities announced just a month ago they had successfully concluded a smaller military deployment. Turkish media reports added that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, carried out a rare daytime attack on a gendarmerie station in the district on Friday. In interviews with the FT, politicians and analysts said the intensifying fighting was ending hopes of resolving a conflict in which more than 30,000 people have died over 20 years. "It looks like it will take nothing short of a miracle to solve this," said Hakan Altinay, chairman of the Open Society Foundation-Turkey. Common ground was already narrowing and it is narrowing further. Maybe the best we can hope for is that things don't get very much worse. While Turkey's ruling party has blamed the upsurge in violence on hostile foreign powers, Kurdish activists point to mass detentions that have put 8,000 people behind bars. Selahattin Demirtas, head of the Kurdish party in Turkey's parliament, told the FT that the judicial investigation that had led to the arrests was boosting PKK recruitment at the fastest rate in 15 years. The case, into a shadowy umbrella Kurdish organisation, has seen 35 mayors from Mr Demirtas" Peace and Development party arrested and has left 44 journalists facing prosecution in a trial that began in Istanbul this week. Another journalist is awaiting trial after writing articles revealing child abuse in a juvenile correction centre holding mainly Kurdish prisoners. Some observers add that the PKK has also grown in strength after an incident last December when the Turkish military killed 34 Kurdish smugglers in a bombing raid. Referring to Semdinli, Mr Demirtas added: "The PKK are now controlling a certain rural area in Turkey ... this is the first time they have controlled territory for such a period of time." His claims have been fiercely denied by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, who has called on Mr Demirtas and his party to decide whether to stay in parliament or go to the mountains with the PKK. For years Mr Erdogan pursued a "Kurdish opening" involving negotiations with the PKK and greater rights for Kurds. But after a breakdown in the talks and an upsurge in bloody PKK attacks, the prime minister now declares that there is "no Kurdish issue" in the country, only a battle with terrorism. In response to a recent meeting between PKK fighters and deputies from Mr Demirtas" party, on a rural road where the two sides exchanged hugs, Mr Erdogan invoked the prospect of withdrawing the MPs" parliamentary immunity and arresting them. That previously occurred in the 1990s, when the conflict was at its height. "If they want to work within this parliament, they must act within the framework of the constitution and the law," Mr Erdogan declared, referring to the MPs. In an apparent threat of prosecution, he added: Otherwise, we've already told the judiciary what is necessary; the judiciary is doing what is necessary. Huseyin Celik, a leading member of Mr Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development party, linked the PKK's growing activity with what he said was its role "as a subcontractor to many international powers" - a seeming reference to Syria and Iran, deeply at odds with Ankara over Turkey's calls for the departure of President Bashar al-Assad. Mr Celik also compared the journalists on trial, some of whom he said had "written provocative articles," to Osama bin Laden. Asked why unarmed people were being tried as terrorists, Mr Celik said: "Bin Laden did not kill anyone but he made others kill."