The Turkish authorities are "as abusive as ever" in their treatment of protesters, rights group Amnesty International said on Tuesday, a year after anti-government demonstrations were brutally repressed across the country.

"The Turkish authorities have been relentless in their crackdown on protesters -- be it police violence on the streets or by prosecuting them through the courts," said Amnesty secretary general Salil Shetty.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reacted with fury on Monday to the removal of a Turkish flag from a military base by a Kurdish protester, during a weekend of clashes that left two dead.

Protesters in the Kurdish-dominated southeast, angry over what they see as an overbearing and ever-growing military presence, clashed with Turkish soldiers on Saturday, leading to the deaths of two Kurdish demonstrators.

Iran and Turkey on Monday pledged to work together to stop extremism and bloodshed in the Middle East despite their deep differences over Syria's civil war.

"Iran and Turkey, the two important countries in the region, are determined to fight against extremism and terrorism," Iran's President Hassan Rouhani told a news conference in Ankara.

Police and demonstrators clashed in Kurdish-dominated southeastern Turkey on Sunday as tensions mounted the day after two Kurdish men were killed in protests that turned violent.

Police fired tear gas and water cannon at demonstrators who threw stones and burnt barricades following the funeral of one of the victims killed Saturday in the Lice district of Kurdish majority Diyarbakir province, an Agence France Presse reporter on the scene said.  

Austrian far-right leader Heinz-Christian Strache told Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday to "stay at home," ahead of a controversial election rally planned in Vienna later this month.

"We don't need Erdogan in Vienna. I'll tell him right now: 'Erdogan, stay at home'," Freedom Party (FPOe) leader Strache told the daily Oesterreich.

Kurdish rebels in Turkey's southeast are ramping up attacks in a bid to pressure Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to speed up reforms ahead of presidential elections, analysts say.

A recent spate of ambushes, kidnappings and roadblocks by Kurdish militants threatens to further erode the fraught relationship between Ankara and the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) ahead of Turkey's first direct presidential election in August.

Two Kurdish protesters have died of gunshot wounds sustained during fierce clashes with Turkish soldiers in the country's southeast on Saturday.

Ramazan Baran, 24, and Abdulbaki Akdemir, 50, died in hospital after the clashes between soldiers and Kurdish protesters angry at government plans to build military barracks in the Lice district of Kurdish majority Diyarbakir province, medics said.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is expected to visit Turkey on Monday, for the first time since he was elected last year, a Turkish official said.

The Iranian leader is expected to meet Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara for talks on bilateral ties and the broader Middle East, the official told Agence France Presse on Thursday.

Five Turkish soldiers were injured on Wednesday during clashes with Kurdish protesters over government plans to build military barracks in the southeast of the country.

Soldiers fired tear gas and water cannon to break up a 12-day sit-in by some 400 protesters in the Lice district of Kurdish majority Diyarbakir province.

Turkish soldiers on Wednesday fired tear gas and water cannon at Kurds protesting plans to build military barracks in the southeast of the country. 

Soldiers launched an operation early Wednesday to break up a 12-day sit-in by some 400 protesters in the Lice district of Kurdish majority Diyarbakir province.