Turkey warned yesterday that it could take action if Kurdish attempts to take control of Kirkuk in northern Iraq plunges the oil-rich city into ethnic turmoil while a top US envoy sought to ease Ankara's security concerns. In comments published in a newspaper interview, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul renewed concerns that more Kurds than those expelled under Saddam Hussein's rule had settled in Kirkuk, altering the demographic structure of the city which is also home to large numbers of Turkmens, a community of Turkish descent backed by Ankara. "We are observing that the situation has reached dangerous proportions," Gul told the English-language Turkish Daily News newspaper. "Now our fear is the possibility that these gross changes in the demography of Kirkuk could trigger an ethnic confrontation, which has not been seen so far." "If our brothers (Turkmens) are not treated well, if they are subjected to oppression, such developments will hurt us deeply, and in a democratic society administrations cannot remain indifferent, or merely spectators, to such developments," Gul said.