Turkey's parliament

A crew of Turkish academics and researchers who set off on a journey to Antarctica on March 29 have completed the country's first scientific mission and left the continent. The 14-person team, which includes scientists from different universities, urged lawmakers to sign a protocol concerning Antarctica upon their return. 

Neighboring Iran and Iraq are among the 14 countries with which Turkey has offered to sign readmission agreements in a move to enable Turkey to take back migrants rejected by the European Union more quickly.

Turkey's Forestry and Waterworks Minister Veysel Ero?lu slammed NASA's technology as "inadequate," and claimed Turkish studies were better at weather forecasts, after the U.S. agency released a study concluding that the ongoing draught in the eastern Mediterranean was the worst in the past 900 years. 

Turkey's Parliament decided on March 24 to establish an inquiry commission to conduct an in-depth probe into the alleged sexual abuse of children following news reports that eight male students were raped by their teacher at a private foundation in the Central Anatolian province of Karaman. 

Three of the four political parties represented in Turkey's parliament have published a joint declaration condemning terrorism after a suicide attack hit central Ankara on March 13 and killed at least 37 people, however, the Kurdish problem-focused Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) declined to sign the document.

Around 92 percent of Turkey's mainland is on a seismic belt with 95 percent of its population living on it, said Fuat Oktay, head of the Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), in a written message published for the "1-7 March Week of Earthquake." 

A draft law on the protection of personal data fails to outline the establishment of an independent oversight body that would guard such data as required by the EU acquis, an official from the bloc has said.

Turkey's parliament has extended the deployment of the Turkish Naval Force in the Gulf of Aden, Somalian territorial waters and the Arabian Sea to halt piracy for another year.

A coalition from the world's most prestigious press freedom organizations condemned the isolation of arrested Turkish journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül on Jan. 27, holding a vigil in front of Istanbul's Silivri prison to show their support.

Women human rights activists have staged a sit-in at Turkey's parliament to protest ongoing military operations in the southeast and to call on parliament to ensure peace in the region. 

"End the war, talk peace," the group of women chanted during the protest.