It's an occasional but regular sighting in Istanbul. Out of the mist on the Bosphorus that divides Europe and Asia looms the hulk of a Russian warship purposefully making its way to the Mediterranean.

Most likely the ship is part of Moscow's so-called "Syria Express", a key supply line for naval deliveries from its Black Sea ports to military operations backing the regime of President Bashar Assad in Syria.

Turkish authorities on Tuesday found the bodies of at least 21 migrants, including several children, washed up on beaches and floating in the sea off its western coast after their boats sank while crossing the Aegean Sea to EU member Greece.

The tragedies, the deadliest so far reported in the Aegean in 2016, come as the EU seeks to push Turkey to halt the flow of migrants across its borders in exchange for financial help.

Turkey on Monday urged Iran and Saudi Arabia to calm tensions in their diplomatic crisis, saying the hostility between the two key Muslim powers would only further escalate problems in an explosive region.

"We want both countries to immediately move away from the situation of tension that will obviously only add to the already severe tensions existing in the Middle East," Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said in Ankara's first reaction to the crisis.

Turkey must accept that it needs Israel, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday, as the two countries seek to thrash out a deal on normalizing ties.

NATO member Turkey was a key regional ally of Israel until the two countries fell out over the deadly storming by Israeli commandos in 2010 of a Turkish aid ship, the Mavi Marmara, bound for Gaza.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday backed the opening of a criminal probe into the leaders of Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party, saying they should "pay the price" for remarks pressing for autonomy for the country's largest ethnic minority.

Erdogan also suggested Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag -- the co-leaders of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) should have their parliamentary immunity removed for the investigation into their "constitutional crime".

Turkish security forces killed 3,100 Kurdish militants in 2015, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday, vowing no let-up in a relentless offensive to oust rebels from towns and mountains in the southeast.

His remarks, which were part of a televised New Year's address, come as alarm grows over the humanitarian impact of curfews in the southeast to back up the latest military campaign against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that began earlier this month.

Turkish police on Wednesday detained two Islamic State suspects accused of plotting a suicide bombing on New Year's Eve celebrations in the capital Ankara.

The arrests come with European countries on high alert for possible attacks over the New Year, with Belgium detaining two suspected Islamists and Moscow closing off Red Square.

Mehmet Ali Duzcu usually holds a holiday party for his small team of colleagues in Moscow, but this year he is in no mood to celebrate.

His firm, which imports textiles from Turkey, had already been hurting from Russia's economic crisis, but now sanctions Moscow has imposed against Turkey over the downing of a Russian jet last month -- which go into effect on January 1st -- have "practically been a death sentence", he said.

Turkish authorities have arrested three suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group in Istanbul, including two Pakistanis and a Briton, state media said Tuesday.

The state-run Anatolia news agency said the Pakistani suspects had been detained last week in a raid on their homes in Istanbul's central Mecidiyekoy district.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday accused the leader of the main Kurdish party Selahattin Demirtas of "treason" over his call for autonomy for the country's Kurdish minority.

In a speech at the weekend, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-chairman Demirtas said that Turkey's largest ethnic minority had to decide whether to live in autonomy or "under one man's tyranny".