The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office vindicated daily Cumhuriyet columnist Bekir Coşkun of charges leveled against him by Turkey’s General Staff for an article he penned, while CHP deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu also proposed an amendment to nullify a law that prescribes prison terms for insulting the president.

A new draft law may allow access to free healthcare services for refugees, asylum seekers and tourists in Turkey, as current legislation lacks precision with respect to the exact status of foreigners in the country.

Fatih Mayor Mustafa Demir said he was certain the Council of State would not ratify the recent court decision to annul the project to “transform” Istanbul’s Sulukule district, a historical Roma quarter, adding that a new project was also in the works just in case.

Human rights organizations called for an end to all violence between the Turkish military and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) during a press release today, following fierce clashes that killed and injured scores of people from both sides in recent days.

A court in the northeastern province of Erzurum ruled to acquit Hatip Dicle, a member of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) who had lost his seat in Parliament three days prior to last year’s elections due to a court verdict against him on terrorism related charges.

The Ministry of Interior relieved Van Mayor Bekir Kaya of his duties after authorities arrested him as part of the ongoing probe into the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) in the eastern province of Van, even before the expiration of his grace period to appeal.

The Initiative for Solidarity with Arrested Students (TÖDİ) staged a demonstration in Paris to show their support for Sevil Sevimli, a student arrested in the northwestern province of Eskişehir after she arrived there on the Erasmus program to study.

13 inmates lost their lives and five were injured during a fire that broke out inside a prison ward in the southeastern province of Urfa on the evening of June 16. The incident may have come about due to rights violations caused by overcrowding, according to allegations.

The mothers who lost their children in the Roboski (Uludere) Massacre arrived in Istanbul to demand justice 173 days after the air strike that killed 34 civilians last year in the southeastern province of Şırnak.

Human rights organizations decried the new draft law on the Turkish Human Rights Institution (TIHK) during a press meeting at the headquarters of the Human Rights Association (IHD) on June 14.

Transport Minister Binali Yıldırım said the United States has access to all information flowing from Turkish citizens due to companies like Google and Yahoo and announced the introduction of a national search engine instead, while Prof. Yaman Akdeniz questioned the wisdom behind such an initiative.

Prominent representatives of Turkey’s Alevi minority sharply criticized the government’s move to include elective courses on the Alevi faith in school curricula as part of the new controversial education reform bill.

Turkey failed to take any concrete steps to execute the verdict passed by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, case lawyer Fethiye Çetin told the Committe of Ministers of the Council of Europe in a letter.

Men killed 15 women and two babies in Turkey in the month of May, according to bianet’s tally. They also injured 32 women during the same period, or a total of 71 women during the first quarter of 2012. The victims’ husbands were the culprits in the largest number of cases.

A court ruled to annul the preliminary project to demolish Istanbul’s historical Sulukule district inhabited mainly by the Roma community and to replace it with new villas as part of the government’s “Urban Transformation” scheme.

The Atatürk Airport Security Commission decided to ban all demonstrations and acts of protest inside airport grounds. The move comes in wake of a decision by the Turkish Airlines (THY) to lay off 305 employees who had gone on a strike, while the head of the Turkish Civil Aviation Union (Hava-İş) also warned of safety hazards caused by a shortage of employees.

Support for the right to abortion has declined considerably in Turkey since 1990, according to a public opinion survey published by Istanbul’s Bahçeşehir University. Religion, education and ideology constitute the main indicators that influence an individual’s stance on abortion.

A court sentenced Aysel Tuğluk, an independent deputy from the eastern province of Van and the co-chair of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK,) to 14 years and seven months in prison on terrorism related charges.

The “People’s Law Office” (“Halkın Hukuk Bürosu”) has cautioned that the amendments to the Turkish Penal Code proposed in the third judicial package pending in Parliament will widen the scope of the definition of “weapons” to include deodorants and cologne while increasing penalties for using illegal electricity and water.

“Men Against the Abortion Ban” marched across Istiklal Avenue in Istanbul’s Beyoğlu district on Sunday to express the reasons why they oppose the controversial proposal by government officials to ban abortion.