Turkey's military has bitterly condemned the US army for seizing commandos in Iraq in an incident mirroring soured ties between the two NATO allies.
The arrest of 11 special forces officers on Friday and their release two days' later also highlighted deep Turkish military concerns about its role in northern Iraq and its influence at home.
Armed Forces Chief of General Staff Hilmi Ozkok said the incident was a "major crisis of trust" between Washington and Ankara.
"We attach great importance to Turkish-American diplomatic and armed forces' relations," Mr Ozkok said. "But there's something as important as these relations. That is our national honour and the honour of the Turkish armed forces."
Mr Ozkok said the United States and Turkey, which has had small detachments of troops in northern Iraq since the 1990s pursuing Turkish Kurdish separatists, would soon launch a joint investigation into what happened.
Diplomatic sources in the Middle East said one of those detained was a Turkish colonel whom US or British forces had expelled from Iraq twice previously for "suspicious activities".
They said there was evidence the soldiers were involved in a plot to kill the interim governor of Kirkuk.
Turkey, which sees northern Iraq as an area of vital security interests, denies such suggestions. The incident, which produced dramatic newspaper headlines such as "Rambo Crisis" and "Ugly American", came three months after Turkey's parliament unexpectedly refused the US army permission to use Turkish soil for its invasion of Iraq.
The Pentagon, long Turkey's chief advocate in Washington, saw army failure to promote the US case among politicians as a major factor. Military reticence may in part have been the result of its disapproval of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government with its Islamist roots.