President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's top rival in Turkey's 2018 election said on Monday he would quit the main opposition party and establish his own movement.

Turkey has vaccinated more than one million people against the novel coronavirus in the first week of a national inoculation drive, according to health ministry figures issued Wednesday.

Turkey's defence minister has called on the United States to reopen talks about Ankara's controversial purchase of a Russian air defence system, urging Washington to move past sanctions and threats.

Turkish police on Tuesday detained 17 people after hundreds attended a student-led protest against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's appointment of a rector to a top university in Istanbul.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that Moscow and Ankara's military cooperation would not be deterred by US sanctions on Turkey for acquiring a Russian missile defence system.

Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar travelled to Libya on Saturday flanked by top military officers to inspect Turkish units in the war-torn country, the official Anadolu news agency reported.

Turkey's central bank on Thursday hiked its main interest rate to 17 percent in what economists greeted as a sign that the financially troubled country was embracing monetary orthodoxy once again.

A Turkish court on Wednesday sentenced the exiled former editor-in-chief of the opposition Cumhuriyet daily to more than 27 years in jail on charges of aiding a terror group and espionage.

Top US diplomat Mike Pompeo has assured his Turkish counterpart that American sanctions imposed on Ankara for its acquisition of a Russian missile defense system were not intended to weaken the country's military capabilities.

The EU announced Thursday that it has allocated to Turkey the full six billion euros Ankara sought in return for its hosting of Syrian refugees.