Turkey's PM Announces New Cabinet

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Wednesday unveiled Turkey's new cabinet after his Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) won a third straight term in power in the June 12 elections.

Apart from Erdogan, the line-up included 25 ministers, both outgoing cabinet members and newcomers.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu retained his post, while Egemen Bagis, Turkey's chief negotiator in EU accession talks, was appointed to head the newly-established European Union ministry, Erdogan told a press conference after President Abdullah Gul approved the list.

Two newcomers, Ismet Yilmaz and Naim Sahin, took over the defense and interior ministries respectively.

The cabinet included only one woman -- Fatma Sahin, who was appointed family and social policies minister.

Erdogan said he would present the government's program to parliament on Friday ahead of a vote of confidence next week, which he is set to easily win, with the AKP holding a solid majority of 327 seats in the 550-member house.

Erdogan's new term got off to a turbulent start amid an opposition boycott of parliament after the courts refused to free lawmakers who were elected from prison, where they have been awaiting trial over anti-government plots or links to Kurdish rebels.

On Tuesday, the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), which holds 135 seats, slammed "threats and blackmail" and vowed to maintain the protest until a solution is found to secure the release of two colleagues in jail.

Its reaction followed a warning by senior AKP member Mustafa Elitas that opposition lawmakers might face sanctions for non-attendance, a procedure never activated before, which may in theory result in a vote to strip them of their seats and force a by-election.

Elitas said that "July 15 appears to be a deadline" to end the protest, referring to the date when parliament is expected to go to summer recess.

In an apparent bid to ease the tensions, Erdogan Wednesday chided Elitas for setting deadlines, but maintained his criticism of the boycott, referring to parliament's disciplinary rules.

"We wish that the opposition lawmakers take their oaths and assume their place in parliament... but giving such dates is wrong," he said.

"What is the meaning of being a lawmaker if one does not participate in legislative work? If they fail to carry out their legislative duties, then naturally it is our duty to do what parliamentary rules require."

CHP deputies have attended the general assembly but refused to take their oaths, a move that has barred them from assuming their legislative functions.

Kurdish-backed lawmakers, for their part, have shunned Ankara altogether, convening instead in Diyarbakir, and the largest city of the mainly Kurdish southeast.

A total of nine people were elected from prison, including six Kurds.

Overriding precedents, judges refused to free them, dismissing arguments that the defendants did not pose a risk of hiding evidence or fleeing the ongoing trials.

Adding to the controversy, the authorities stripped one of them, a prominent Kurd, of his parliamentary seat and handed it to the AKP.