The Turkish government on Thursday fired or reassigned some 500 police officers in the capital Ankara as it pressed on with a purge of the country's police force in response to a high-level graft probe, local media said.

Senior officers were among those removed from their posts in the latest wave of sackings, the Milliyet daily said on its website.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Tehran on Tuesday evening on an official visit expected to be dominated by trade ties and the Syrian civil war.

The visit comes as the two countries are trying to rebuild relations strained by the situation in Syria, with Iran supporting President Bashar Assad while Turkey backs the rebels seeking to oust him.

French President Francois Hollande arrived in Turkey on Monday for a state visit amid a political crisis plaguing the Turkish government and turmoil roiling his private life.

Hollande's two-day visit is the first by a French head of state in 22 years and reflects a thaw in ties that were frosty over France's stance on Turkish accession to the EU and the genocide of Armenians.

The exiled Muslim cleric at the heart of a bitter feud with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Monday denied allegations that he was behind a vast graft scandal roiling the government.

In his first broadcast interview since he arrived in the United States in 1999, Fethullah Gulen told the BBC that he was not behind the corruption probe that has ensnared Erdogan's key allies.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday offered to freeze several parts of a controversial justice reform bill in the face of widespread opposition.

The move comes as parliament was set for a possible vote later Friday on the legislation, which aims to exert greater government control of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutor.

A Turkish court on Friday rejected a retrial request by dozens of people including former army chiefs, lawyers and journalists convicted in 2012 over an alleged coup plot.

Lawyers filed the request this month after the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested it was open to the retrials of hundreds of army officers despite its long campaign to curb the once all-powerful military.

Turkey launched a mass new purge of the police and judiciary on Wednesday as parliament debates controversial reforms that have heightened the crisis engulfing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Around 470 police were sacked or reassigned in the capital Ankara alone, NTV television reported, in the latest fallout from a corruption scandal targeting several top politicians and business leaders including Erdogan allies.

Any leader would be better for Syria than President Bashar Assad, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday on the eve of talks to find a political transition in Damascus.

"We are tired of hearing about who will replace Assad," Erdogan said during a visit to Brussels.

Turkey voiced hope on Monday that controversial judicial reforms would not provoke a major crisis with the European Union.

The comments by European affairs minister Mevlut Cavusoglu came ahead of a visit to Brussels this week by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his first in five years.

Turkey's foreign minister said Sunday the country was ready to discuss all issues with the European Union at high-profile talks this week, including a row over judicial independence that has escalated the crisis engulfing the government.

The controversy over Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's bid to increase his control over Turkey's top judicial oversight body, the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK), has dealt a new blow to the country's long-held goal of EU membership just as Erdogan prepares for a crunch day of talks in Brussels on Tuesday.