Turkey has cracked down on rivals of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and launched air strikes against Kurdish rebels, clearly signalling a return to hardline tactics after an election that cemented his grip on power.

The West has voiced deep concerns about Sunday's vote, which delivered Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) a landslide victory, fearing the country will slide into increasingly authoritarian rule.

Hopes of a possible return to Kurdish peace talks after the vote were dashed after the military on Tuesday said its warplanes bombed bases of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in southeastern Turkey and their northern Iraq stronghold on Monday.

"Shelters, caves and arms depots identified as being used by terrorists from the separatist terrorist organisation were destroyed with air bombardments," it said in a statement.

Three Kurdish rebels also died on Tuesday after clashes erupted with security forces in two areas of the restive southeast, the first reported deaths in PKK ranks since the election.

Analysts say anxiety over the resurgent Kurdish conflict and a spate of bloody attacks by the Islamic State group were key reasons why voters flocked back to the AKP.

In a turnaround that confounded pollsters, Erdogan's Islamic-rooted AKP reclaimed the majority it lost five months ago, winning almost half the votes and returning the Muslim-majority state of 78 million to single-party rule.

And events in Turkey appear to bear out grim predictions that the "Sultan" who has dominated politics for more than a decade will brook no dissent as he seeks to expand his presidential powers.

Prosecutors on Tuesday charged two journalists over a magazine cover critical of Erdogan, while police rounded up dozens of supporters of a US-based cleric now regarded as the president's nemesis.

The leftwing Nokta magazine said on Twitter its editor-in-chief Cevheri Guven and managing editor Murat Capan had been arrested and charged with "attempting to overthrow the government by force".

Police had raided its Istanbul offices on Monday after the election edition of the magazine hit the streets with a front cover declaring "The start of civil war in Turkey".

Police also detained 44 suspects including high-ranking bureaucrats and police as part of a "terrorism" investigation into exiled lay preacher Fetullah Gulen.

Gulen is charged with running a "parallel state" which launched a widespread corruption probe into the president's inner circle in 2013 that tarnished Erdogan and his party, whose initials AK mean "pure" in Turkish.

Three former provincial governors and an ex-deputy police chief were among those held.
The action came only a day after the United States and two European observer missions expressed concern about media intimidation during the election campaign.

Ankara denied there was any pressure on the media, despite a string of high-profile arrests and raids on opposition television stations that raised alarm in the run-up to the vote.