Bulent Arinc

Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç has opposed the detention of two media chiefs who were taken into custody in controversial weekend raids on journalists and television staff linked to U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

"It is not right to deprive a person of their personal freedom for even a single day," Arınç told reporters on Dec. 19.

Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç had said of the mysterious Twitter user identified as Fuat Avni, "If what he says turns out to be true, then it is a grave situation."

On the morning of Dec. 14, it was understood that they were indeed true and indeed grave.

Turkey has moved to revive broken ties with Middle Eastern countries, including Syria, Egypt and the Gulf states, according to Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç, who stressed the "friendship and brotherhood" amid the ongoing crises in bilateral relations.

An imam who worked at a mosque in the Çanakkale province of northwestern Turkey has joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), daily Taraf quoted Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç as saying on Dec. 12, adding that the imam has been removed from his post.

Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç failed to completely deny recent claims that hundreds of relatives and friends of Cabinet members and ruling party lawmakers have been appointed to government positions without passing the required public personnel examination.

More than 2,800 miners have been laid off in the Aegean coal capital of Soma, hit by the deadliest mining accident of Turkey's history.

The Soma Coal Mining Company, which operates the Eynez mine where 301 workers were killed in May, stated that its contract with Turkish Coal Enterprises expired in May 2014 and the contracts of 2,831 miners had been canceled as of Nov. 30.

Parliament in Turkey is expected to discuss and vote on an authorization to send troops against Islamic State (IS) fighters.

Speaker Cemil Cicek explained Monday the government sought approval from the legislature before the Eid al-Adha holiday starting this weekend, Cihan news agency reports him as saying.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry has summoned the US charge d'affaires over a media report that the United States had spied on Turkey intensively since 2006.

President Abdullah Gül denied claims in one national newspaper yesterday, July 17, that he was so sidelined in the Justice and Development Party (AKP) – of which together with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Bülent Arınç, he was one of the three founders – that he might continue politics in a new party.

A Turkish man who was shot in the head on Thursday during a police crackdown on protesters, has died of his injuries, the Istanbul governor said.

"Unfortunately we have not been able to save Ugur Kurt," Huseyin Avni Mutlu wrote on Twitter, several hours after the 30-year-old victim was brought to hospital.