Turkey's main opposition leader pledged on Sunday to introduce a "first-class democracy" and eradicate poverty as he announced a election manifesto ahead of the June legislative poll.

"You have my word. We will bring first-class democracy to this country," Kemal Kilicdaroglu of the secular Republican People's Party (CHP) told party supporters in Ankara.

A Turkish man was sentenced Friday to almost twelve years in jail for attempting to assassinate President Recep Tayyip Erdogan when he was still prime minister, state media said.

An Istanbul court convicted Ferhat Yildiz of "attempting to kill a public servant" and sentenced him to 11 years and eight months in prison, the official Anatolia news agency reported.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday expressed anger over the pope's use of the word genocide to describe the mass killings of Armenians in World War I, saying such talk was nonsense and the pontiff should not repeat such a mistake again.

Ankara at the weekend summoned the Vatican nuncio and recalled the Turkish envoy to the Holy See in a furious reaction to Pope Francis' description of the killings of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman forces.

A Turkish court on Friday placed under arrest pending trial 17 soldiers charged in a hugely controversial case over the interception last year of a consignment that allegedly contained arms bound for Syria.

The 17 have been charged with membership of a terrorist organization and working on behalf of the "parallel state", common official shorthand for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's arch enemy the U.S.-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.

Turkish prosecutors on Wednesday called for two prominent journalists who featured Charlie Hebdo's cover with the image of the Prophet Mohammed in their columns to be jailed for four and a half years.

Istanbul's chief public prosecutor has charged Ceyda Karan and Hikmet Cetinkaya with "inciting public hatred" and "insulting religious values" by illustrating their columns with the cartoon, the Hurriyet daily reported.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday launched one of his bitterest tirades against journalists, accusing the press of being an accomplice in the killing of a prosecutor in Istanbul last week.

The government has reacted furiously to the publication of images showing prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz held captive by a left-wing group with a gun held to his head earlier this week, temporarily blocking access to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Turkey's main political parties on Tuesday submitted to the election authorities their lists of candidates for June parliamentary polls, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's son-in-law among those standing.

Berat Albayrak, husband of Erdogan's elder daughter Esra, is one of the candidates of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for Istanbul, the party announced.

Turkey and Iran agree on the need for a political solution to end Yemen's war, which has raised tensions between them, Iran's president said Tuesday after talks with his visiting Turkish counterpart.

"We talked about Iraq, Syria, Palestine... We had a long discussion about Yemen. We both think war and bloodshed must stop in this area immediately and a complete ceasefire must be established and the strikes must stop" in Yemen, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said during a joint press conference broadcast by state television.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to visit Iran on Tuesday despite a war of words between the neighboring countries over conflicts from Syria to Yemen, Tehran confirmed.

There had been calls from Iranian conservatives for the visit to be cancelled after Erodgan accused Shiite Tehran of backing "terrorist" rebels in the face of an air campaign in Yemen led by its Sunni arch rival Riyadh.

Turkish authorities on Wednesday rounded up over 30 suspected members of the radical leftist group behind a bloody hostage standoff that left a top Istanbul prosecutor dead and shocked the country.

Funeral ceremonies were being held for prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz, who had been investigating the politically-sensitive case of a teenager who died of injuries inflicted by police during anti-government protests in 2013.