Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday apologised for a bloody military campaign that killed thousands of Kurds in southeast Turkey at the end of 1930s.

"If it is necessary to apologise on behalf of the state... I will apologise, I am apologising," Erdogan told his Justice and Development Party (AKP) members in Ankara in televised remarks.

It was the first official apology for the air strikes and ground operations in the city of Dersim -- now named Tunceli -- that killed 13,800 people between 1936 and 1939, according to an official document of the time Erdogan cited in his speech.

The offensive took place under the rule of the current main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), which was established by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish state.

Turkey was under one-party rule of the CHP until 1946.

"Dersim is one of the most tragic events of our near history. It is a disaster waiting to be enlightened and boldly questioned," Erdogan said.

The strikes targeting Dersim were tried to be legitimised as "quelling an uprising," Erdogan said, but "there was an operation which was planned step by step."

Erdogan slammed the CHP for the killings and urged the party to "face" that bloody campaign. The current leader of the CHP, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, is from Dersim.

"Dersim is the most painful and bloody (event) among tens, hundreds of disasters the CHP had caused. It is not the AK Party and the AK Party government that should face this event and apologise, but it is the CHP," he said.

Recently Mehmet Metiner, an AKP deputy, proposed changing the name of Sabiha Gokcen Airport in Istanbul, which was named after the adopted daughter of Ataturk.

Gokcen was Turkey's first woman pilot and actively took part in the air campaign against Dersim.