Three French jihadists and their nine children returned to France on Tuesday after being expelled by Turkey, legal sources said, a day after France took back 12 children of French jihadists from camps in northern Syria.

The United States on Friday gave Turkey until the end of July to abandon its purchase of a major Russian missile defense system, which Washington considers incompatible with Ankara's participation in the F-35 fighter jet program.

If by July 31 Turkey does not renounce the S-400 system, Turkish pilots training in the United States on the F-35 will be expelled, and agreements with Turkish firms subcontracted for manufacturing the F-35 stealth warplane will be cancelled, Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, told reporters.

Turkish authorities on Monday ordered the arrest of 249 past and present foreign ministry personnel suspected of ties to the group blamed for a failed 2016 coup, the prosecutor's office said. 

European elections are often drab, overlooked affairs, but in Cyprus a Turkish Cypriot professor is breaking taboos and is poised to be elected as an MEP in a first for the ethnically divided island.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday welcomed an order to re-run the recent Istanbul election, a move the opposition has branded an attack on democracy.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Tuesday criticised plans to re-run Istanbul's mayoral election as "not transparent and incomprehensible to us".

The Turkish opposition candidate stripped off his mayoral post after a controversial order to re-run the Istanbul vote was holding talks with his party leader on Tuesday to discuss strategy.

US officials pressed Turkey on Sunday against going forward with plans to start exploratory drilling for oil and gas off Cyprus, labeled as illegal by the European Union.

Turkish police on Wednesday blocked protesters trying to hold a commemoration in Istanbul of the 1915 massacres and forced deportation of Armenians.

Troops from the Ottoman Empire -- which preceded modern-day Turkey -- were responsible for mass killing of Armenians, but Turkey has always denied that the incident amounted to genocide.

Turkish police on Monday arrested six people, including a member of the ruling AKP party, after an attack on opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, local media and party officials said.