Turkey's Islamic-rooted ruling party lost its absolute parliamentary majority in legislative elections on Sunday, dealing a severe blow to strongman President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ambition to expand his powers.

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) won the biggest share of the vote in the elections, but well down on the almost 50 percent it recorded in the previous 2011 polls.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday filed a criminal complaint against a top daily newspaper and its editor for publishing images allegedly showing trucks belonging to the state intelligence service helping send weapons to rebels in Syria. 

Erdogan has accused the opposition daily Cumhuriyet and its editor-in-chief Can Dundar of "publishing images and information contrary to the truth" and "obtaining and disseminating secret information," the official Anatolia news agency reported. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the main opposition chief for claiming his vast palace had gold-plated toilet seats, in an increasingly acrimonious row over the alleged lavatory luxuries ahead of June 7 elections.

Erdogan's lawyer Muammer Cemaloglu is seeking 100,000 Turkish Liras ($37,300) in compensation for slander from Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday invited the opposition to inspect his gigantic presidential palace for gold-plated toilet seats, vowing to resign if they could prove their allegations of his bathroom bling.

Erdogan's 1,150-room palace, which was built at a cost of around 490 million euros ($615 million), has been condemned by critics as an absurd extravagance and held up as proof he is slipping further into authoritarianism.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened an opposition daily which published footage allegedly showing trucks belonging to the state intelligence service carrying weapons to rebels in Syria, vowing it will pay a "heavy price".

"The slander against the National Intelligence Organization and the illegitimate operation (against MIT trucks) is an espionage activity at one point," Erdogan told state-run TRT television late Sunday. "This newspaper was also involved in this espionage activity."

Turkish police on Sunday tightened security around Istanbul's Taksim square, on the second anniversary of the mass anti-government protests that rocked the square in 2013.

Police blocked major roads leading to the square and the adjoining Gezi Park, and public transport links in the area were suspended, an AFP photographer said.

Turkish authorities announced Friday they had taken control of the country's 10th largest lender, Bank Aysa, which is linked to an ally-turned-foe of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

In a statement, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency said it had handed over the reins of the bank to the state-run Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) eight days before legislative elections on June 7.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday opened a new airport in a restive eastern province dogged by a Kurdish separatist insurgency, naming the facility for a celebrated Muslim medieval leader of Kurdish origin.

Erdogan inaugurated the airport in Yuksekova in Hakkari province, close to the border with Iran and Iraq, alongside Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in a joint appearance ahead of June 7 elections.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday accused the New York Times of meddling in Turkey's affairs with a critical editorial, angrily telling the U.S. daily to "know your place."

In a growing controversy over media rights in Turkey ahead of June 7 legislative polls, Erdogan blasted an "impolite" editorial in the New York Times last week which he said "literally gave orders to the United States."

An Ankara court on Thursday fined one of Turkey's top newspapers for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a column, as tensions between government and media grow ahead of June 7 elections.

The court deemed that the August 25, 2014 column by one of the star commentators on the Hurriyet daily, Mehmet Yilmaz, was an "attack on the personal rights" of Erdogan.