About 25 tanks joined the exercises, which are meant to test the tanks’ speed and maneuvering capabilities, the Anatolia news agency said.

The exercises will continue for the next few days, Mardin Governor Turhan Ayvaz told Anatolia. The governor did not mention developments on the other side of the border, saying the exercises were “routine.”

Quoting Anatolia, Zaman daily said the exercise is held due to the activities of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) rebels in the northern Kurdish cities of Syria across with Turkey border.

The exercises in the Nusaybin district follow a series of military deployments to the Syrian border since reports that Syrian Kurdish groups have established control over northern Syria appeared in the Turkish media late last month, the daily wrote.

Meanwhile citing an “Arab diplomat”, Al-Watan daily said “Ankara is preparing an agreement with Washington to intervene militarily in the Syrian, using the Kurdish card as an excuse.”

 “Turkey has agreed with the US on an intervention limited to the north of Syria, specifically the province of Aleppo, to pave the way for the creation of a safe haven guarded by the armed gangs,” the daily was quoted by AFP as saying.