Turkey Live Coverage (31 May): Erdogan "World Cannot Remain Silent About Syria"

1900 GMT: Danish EU affairs minister Nicolai Wammen says the biggest problem of Turkey's EU accession process is the matter of the freedom of press.

1830 GMT: Addressing to the nation, Prime Minister Erdogan said:

Due to the recent bitter incident happened in Uludere, our security forces, institutions and government are being targeted alltogether. Even not these; but our brotherhood is being targeted through the exploitation of Uludere and of the pain. 

Unfortunately, the opposition also shows such a problematised approach at this matter. Unfortunately, some media organisations don't and even can't take side with the nation in such an important, national and essential matter like terror.

Those who do not trust in the institutions, politicians and administrators of this country go and carry this exploitation policy to its peak by believing in those intentional publicaitons of foreign countries. Be sure of this, my dear citizens... The state does its part and will do so following the Uludere incident.

1440 GMT: Security forces found a homemade bomb weighing 30 kilograms in the province of Hakkari. It was successfully diffused. 

1400 GMT: BDP's co-chair Selahattin Demirtas called on the people of Diyarbakir to protest Prime Minister Erdogan during his visit on 2 June and to leave him alone. Demirtas also said:

They are going to recognize the Kurdish people or prefer a total war. This what they are trying to do. Until the AKP government accepts our demands, we will not take negotiation in our agenda. Now, I am calling out to Prime Minister. If you really think that we will surrender because of your massacres and isolation policy, you will be left empty-handed.  

1245 GMT: One person claimed to be the in charge of the outlawed KCK's activities in the province of Agri was captured by police.

1200 GMT: Turkish daily Radikal claims the prosecutor's office has prepared a summary of proceedings against six deputies of the opposition Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and two independent deputies. They are charged with being members of the outlawed Union of Kurdistan Communities (KCK).

1140 GMT: A bomb placed in a jar and left in the washroom of a McDonald's restaurant in Istanbul's Fatih district was defused by Turkish police.

1100 GMT: Speaking at a summit of the Alliance of Civilizations, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the world should not remain silent in the face of “oppression". He referrred to "our children who were massacred in Hama, Homs and Houla, as much as they are the children of desperate Syrian families".

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon defended the UN mission in Syria and criticised the Assad regime:

We are there to record violations and to speak out so that the perpetrators of crimes may be held to account.

The more the international community knows, the more likely it is that we can advance on our most important goal: to help find a political solution, a solution that safeguards the lives and interests of all the Syrian people.

Let me state plainly, however: The UN did not deploy in Syria just to bear witness to the slaughter of innocents. We are not there to play the role of passive observer to unspeakable atrocities.

The massacre of civilians of the sort seen last weekend could plunge Syria into a catastrophic civil war -- a civil war from which the country would never recover. I demand that the government of Syria act on its commitments under the Annan peace plan. A united international community demands that the Syrian government act on its responsibilities to its people.

We hear a great deal about the so-called "clash of civilizations" --- the supposed rift between predominantly Muslim and Western societies. That is not what is going on in Syria. There, it is the old story of a tyranny seeking to hold power. And in seeking to hold on to power, the regime threatens to exacerbate tensions among Syria's diverse people, much as we saw in the former Yugoslavia two decades ago.

1030 GMT: Health Minister Recep Akdag has said the content of an abortion bill is not yet clear and that it should be developed through discussion.

Akdag had said on Wednesday that babies could be taken and raised by the state, as an alternative to abortion, in cases of pregnancy by rape.