ANKARA/TUNCELI, Turkey: Prime minister of Turkey handed in his government’s resignation Tuesday in the wake of his electoral victory, paving the way for a reshuffle of the Cabinet that will seek to replace the military-era constitution.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who won a third term in parliamentary elections Sunday, said however, that ministers will continue to head their ministries until Turkey’s electoral board formally confirms the poll results and a new government is formed. Erdogan’s ruling party took 50 percent of the votes in the elections.

Many of the ministers were expected to retain posts, despite a government restructuring of the Cabinet last week that merged some ministries and created some new ones – including one to oversee Turkey’s faltering bid to join the European Union.

On another note, military officials said that Turkish troops killed three Kurdish militants in a clash Tuesday in central Turkey. The killings marked the first serious violence since Sunday’s parliamentary election.

Jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan last month threatened “war” unless the government enters talks after the election, setting a deadline of June 15.

Several hundred troops, backed by helicopters, launched an operation against a group of up to 10 PKK rebels early Tuesday in Sivas province, far from the usual area of conflict in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey, the officials said.

They said the PKK group was believed to have been on its way from the eastern province of Tunceli to the northern Black Sea region when their presence was detected in Sivas’ Imranli district.

Military operations were continuing in the area.

In statements issued through lawyers who pay weekly visits to his prison cell on Imrali island south of Istanbul, Ocalan said previous agreements had been broken.

The PKK launched an armed insurgency in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict, most of them Kurds.