Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday rejected growing criticism that his government was muzzling the press, saying many Western countries had even worse records on media freedom.

Erdogan's speech to parliament followed a report by the U.S.-based watchdog Freedom House earlier this month, which downgraded Turkey's status from "partly free" to "not free" and said the country had seen the biggest decline in press freedom in Europe.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan lost his temper during a ceremony Saturday, heckling a speaker who accused him of authoritarian tendencies before walking out of the room in fury.

The official ceremony, which was aired live on Turkish television, saw a visibly enraged Erdogan interrupt the head of the bar association Metin Feyzioglu, whose lengthy speech took several jabs at the government's performance.

Riot police in Istanbul used water cannon and tear gas Thursday against thousands of protesters who tried to defy a May Day ban on demonstrations, injuring at least 50 people.

After a final warning, hundreds of riot police moved on the crowd seeking to breach the barricades leading to Taksim Square, declared off limits to Labour Day demonstrators as the epicenter of anti-government protests in recent months.

Turkish prosecutors have launched an investigation into a U.S.-based cleric on charges of attempting a coup after the government accused him of masterminding a vast corruption scandal, an official said Wednesday.

Culture Minister Omer Celik told the private NTV television network that the Ankara chief prosecutor's office had launched the probe after several complaints against Fetullah Gulen, a former ruling-party ally whom Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses of running a "parallel state".

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denied the World War I killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire amounted to genocide, just days after his government offered condolences over the massacres for the first time. 

"This is not possible because if such a genocide had been the case, would there have been Armenians living in this country?" Erdogan told U.S. broadcaster PBS on Monday.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday he will seek the extradition of an exiled cleric he accuses of orchestrating a major corruption scandal against his government from his base in the United States.

Erdogan told reporters that a legal procedure "will begin" for the extradition of Fethullah Gulen, a former ally he says is running a "parallel state" that reaches into the top echelons of the Turkish police and judiciary.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday rejected criticism from Germany's president who said he was "scared" by the Turkey's recent spate of rights abuses. 

"I think he still thinks of himself as pastor," Erdogan told parliament, a day after he met with German President Joachim Gauck who is on a four-day visit to Turkey.

Germany's president told Turkey on Monday that its future lies with Europe but the relationship is threatened by the government's recent attempts to muzzle the media and judiciary.

"We see this nation's future in cooperation with Europe, although we cannot tell how and when because we don't know," President Joachim Gauck told a news conference during a landmark four-day visit.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul approved a controversial law expanding the powers of the spy agency, a move critics say will tighten the graft-tainted government's control over state institutions.

The new legislation, adopted last week by parliament after heated debates, provides expanded scope for the MIT agency to tap private phone conversations and collect intelligence related to terrorism and international crimes.

The head of Turkey's top court condemned Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's "excessive criticism" of the judiciary on Friday in the latest fallout from a huge corruption scandal that has pitted key state institutions against each other.

"In a state governed by the rule of law, courts do not work on orders or instructions, and cannot be manipulated by sentiments of friendship or enmity," Constitutional Court president Hasim Kilic said in a strongly-worded speech designed to counter accusations that the judiciary is biased against the prime minister.