Istanbul

The Istanbul Directorate of Anti-smuggling and Organized Crime has seized four paintings by French painter Lazar Binenbaum worth nearly 5 million euros.  

The directorate pushed the button for the operation on a notice that the paintings had been put up for sale by a man identified as M.M.S. 

As he was transporting the painting for sale on March 4, the operation began. 

A Turkish local court has ordered a member of the main opposition party to pay compensation to President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an over charges of "weighty insult and slandering."

Turkish security forces have arrested two suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants and seized plastic explosives and a suicide vest, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency reported March 7. 

The two were apprehended at a border crossing, when authorities noticed that they were trying to place a bag inside the back of a truck that had entered Turkey from Syria.

Sümeyye Erdo?an, the daughter of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, and Selçuk Bayraktar, a defense industrialist engineer producing unmanned aerial vehicles, have taken their first step towards tying the knot. 

Volunteers in Turkey's ?zmir have opened the doors of their "leisure garden" to Syrian refugee children, in order to provide basic social needs for the traumatized children.

The Basmane district of ?zmir, an Aegean province, is known as a "hot spot" or transition point for refugees seeking to cross into Europe through the Aegean Sea illegally, despite risk of death.

Russia's biggest carmaker Avtovaz, majority owned by Renault-Nissan, said on March 7 its chief executive Bo Andersson is to step down.

Hit hard by Russia's economic crisis, the company, which makes Lada cars, has been battling with bankruptcy fears since last month reporting a tripling of net losses for 2015.

France's foreign minister said on March 7 that the decision by Turkish authorities to seize control of the country's largest newspaper was "unacceptable" and went against European values.

Employees of the Feza Gazetecilik Media Group that was recently taken over by a board of trustees have started a new daily titled "Yar?na Bak??," a Turkish phrase meaning looking toward tomorrow.

The government played no part in a court decision to appoint trustees to the Zaman media group, the prime minister claimed March 6, one day after trustees seized control of the group amid a bloody police crackdown on protesters.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Turkey "rightfully" wanted to share the burden of more than 2.5 million migrants with the European Union.