The maverick mayor of Ankara, a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Wednesday fired off an extraordinary anti-U.S. diatribe on Twitter over the Baltimore rioting, telling the U.S. State Department spokeswoman to "come on blonde answer now."

"Come on blonde, answer now!" Melih Gokcek wrote in English as well as Turkish, sharing an image from the riots in Baltimore with a picture of U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf.

One of Turkey's most prominent pop singers has been questioned over a video clip commemorating a teenager whose 2013 death in anti-government demonstrations mobilized opposition to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reports said Wednesday.

Sevval Sam, known for her activism, was questioned by Istanbul prosecutors Tuesday as part of an investigation launched last week into almost a dozen artists who appeared in the video, Milliyet daily reported. 

A Turkish court on Wednesday acquitted more than two dozen activists who helped launch mass protests in 2013 against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after a trial slammed by rights campaigners.

The 26 suspects are all leaders of Taksim Solidarity, an umbrella group of civil society, union and political groups at the forefront of the May-June 2013 demonstrations that marked the biggest challenge yet to the dominance of the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades will meet newly elected Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci on Saturday ahead of a new round of U.N.-brokered talks aimed at reuniting the long-divided island, officials said.

Cyprus government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said the two leaders had agreed to meet following a long telephone conversation on Tuesday.

Three judges who ordered the release of a TV station boss and 74 police officers, accused of being part of a "parallel state" plotting to overthrow Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, were suspended Monday after he lashed out at the decision.

Turkey's Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) suspended the three Istanbul magistrates two days after their decision to free the men provoked a furious reaction from the Turkish government.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan became embroiled with a war of words with the newly elected leader of northern Cyprus on Monday, bluntly telling him he should be careful what says.

Mustafa Akinci, who won a run-off poll in the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on Sunday, drew Ankara's ire when he said Turkey and the TRNC should enjoy a relationship of "brotherly countries" rather than mother and child.

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades said Monday that he saw new hope of ending the island’s decades-long division following the election as Turkish Cypriot leader of reconciliation champion Mustafa Akinci.

"At long last hope is created that our homeland can be reunited to create a modern state governed by EU principles, creating the prospects of cooperation, peace and tranquility," Anastasiades told a conference in Nicosia.

President Reuven Rivlin met Armenian community leaders Sunday on the centenary of the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians, the first time an Israeli head of state has marked the killings.

Israel does not recognize the slaughter of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman forces between 1915 and 1917 as "genocide."

The Turkish coastguard has rounded up 350 mainly Syrian migrants in an operation against a ship planning to take them to Europe, the official Anatolia news agency said Sunday.

Coastguard personnel overnight Saturday to Sunday raided the  Mongolian-flagged "Ole" vessel after a tip-off that migrants were being carried on board.  

Turkish Cypriots voted in a new leader Sunday, with challenger Mustafa Akinci beating incumbent Dervis Eroglu in a run-off poll that could accelerate U.N.-backed efforts to reunify the long-divided island.

Akinci, a former mayor of Nicosia in the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and vocal advocate of reconciliation with the internationally recognized government, had won 60.4 percent of votes with 678 of 693 ballot boxes counted, organizers said.