Three Turkish soldiers were killed early on Friday in a firefight with Kurdish rebels in the southeast of the country, local security sources said.

The clash with members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) occurred after the rebels attacked a military patrol in a rural zone of Tunceli, the sources said.

The Turkish parliament will start drafting a new constitution aimed at guaranteeing more rights to minorities, especially Kurds, a parliamentary source said on Tuesday.

The new text would replace a constitution drawn up by the military after the 1980 coup.

The foreign ministry on Saturday accused Turkey of provocation with its talk of asking NATO to help protect its border with Syria, saying such action went against the U.N.-backed peace plan.

"Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu continue to make provocative statements aimed at aggravating the situation in Syria and harming bilateral ties," foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdisi said.

A suspected former financial manager working for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party in Europe was arrested in Germany on Friday in the city of Cologne, officials said.

The 45-year-old Turkish national, identified as Abdullah S., was "strongly suspected" of PKK involvement and operated a German regional cell under the code name "Hamza" in 2003 and 2004, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden criticized the European Union Friday for not fully embracing Turkey, stressing the "inordinate influence" of a country that is a close American ally.

Biden, at a fund-raising event for President Barack Obama's re-election campaign, told members of the Turkish-American community that Ankara has been "one of our most valuable and proudest allies."

Turkey is considering every possibility if the continuing violence in neighboring Syria send tens of thousands of refugees pouring across the border, its foreign minister said Thursday.

"In the face of developments in Syria, we are taking into consideration any kind of possibility in line with our national security and interests," Ahmet Davutoglu told parliament during a briefing to lawmakers.

Turkish authorities found no weapons after searching a German-owned vessel docked at a southern port last week on suspicion of smuggling arms to Syria, an official report has disclosed.

"As a result of the investigation, nothing was encountered which can be described as weapons, munitions or military materials inside any of the checked goods," according to the report which was signed by Turkish customs officials.

The head of the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia, Aram I, warned on Tuesday that Turkey began “infiltrating” different parts of the world to silence the Armenian people.

“Turkey began to infiltrate not only the countries of the East and the Arab and Islamic worlds but also Europe, Africa and America, using its international tools, diplomatic relations and economic power to silence the Armenian people that is asking for justice,” Aram I said on the 97th anniversary of the genocide of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I.

Three Kurdish rebels were killed and one Turkish soldier was injured Tuesday in clashes in Turkey's southeast, local security sources said.

The clashes between members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Turkish soldiers took place in the Genc district of Bingol province, the sources said.

The acclaimed composer and pianist Fazil Say said Monday that he was turning his back on his native Turkey and would live in exile in Japan after becoming disillusioned by the rise of conservative Islam.

In an interview with the Hurriyet daily, Say spoke of how he felt completely ostracized by Turkish society since he declared that he was an atheist and that the criticism he had received had highlighted a growing culture of intolerance.