A Turkish journalist who went missing in Syria in August and was believed to have been held by government troops has been freed and handed to Turkish lawmakers touring the country on Saturday, the Anatolia news agency reported.

"I am very happy, I am doing well," Cuneyt Unal was quoted by the agency as saying by telephone from Syria.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed concern Friday that renewed violence in Israel and the Gaza Strip would damage the Middle East peace process.

"The two leaders shared their concerns about the dangers to civilian populations on both sides and expressed their common desire to see an end to the violence," the White House said, after Obama called the Turkish leader.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday accused Israeli officials of having ordered the air strikes on the Gaza Strip that left 23 Palestinians dead as an electoral move ahead of January's general election.

"Once again this time, they're on the eve of an election," Erdogan told reporters, recalling Israel's "Cast Lead" Gaza offensive which began just six weeks before the 2009 election.

Turkey's Islamic-rooted ruling party has proposed removing references to the nation's founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in the parliamentary oath, parliamentary sources said Thursday.

The new wording proposed by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to a parliamentary committee drafting the new constitution no longer includes the words "principles and reforms of Ataturk," and "secularism".

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday that Turkey "recognizes the Syrian National Coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the people of Syria."

Davutoglu made the comments during a ministerial meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation which is being held in Djibouti, according to Anatolia news agency.

A Turkish court sentenced a Syrian national on Wednesday to over 12 years in prison for allegedly spying in refugee camps near the border with the conflict-wracked nation, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The court had initially sentenced Sbahi Hamdo and his Turkish accomplice to 15 years in prison for "gathering confidential state information with the aim of political or military espionage".

Turkey's ruling party submitted a bill to parliament Tuesday to allow court testimonies to be given in the Kurdish language, one of the demands raised by hundreds of hunger strikers nationwide.

"A detainee, if he likes, may use another language (than Turkish) to defend himself against charges brought against him in the court," according to the bill proposed by the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).

NATO is ready to help member state Turkey as the 20-month conflict in Syria is increasingly spilling across the border, the alliance's chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Monday.

"Turkey can rely on NATO solidarity, we have more plans in place to defend and protect Turkey, our ally, if needed," Rasmussen told reporters in Prague, but declined to go into details.

The trial of four former Israeli military chiefs charged over a deadly 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish flotilla has been adjourned to February 21, the relief group that organized the mission said on Monday.

Israel has angrily denounced the case as a "show trial" and none of the four defendants have appeared in the dock at the Istanbul court where the trial opened November 6.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched an emergency appeal Monday for 32.3 million Swiss francs ($34.1 million, 26.8 million euros) to help up to 170,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey.

"The Turkish Red Crescent Society is extending its existing response to prepare for the onset of winter and to increase its assistance to up to 170,000 displaced people over the coming months," the IFRC said in a statement.