“Ya Bashar, men dakka dukka [you reap what you sow],” the Sabah daily quoted Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as saying as he called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to stop violence in his own country and step down. “Yours is not a promising path. You will be held accountable for what has happened in Homs,” Erdoğan said at a Justice and Development Party (AK Party) parliamentary meeting. The daily added that Turkey also plans to bring countries together to seek a settlement to the crisis in Syria and to form a Friends of Syria Group.
The Hürriyet daily stated that an İstanbul prosecutor has reportedly summoned Hakan Fidan, head of Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MİT), former MİT Undersecretary Emre Taner and Deputy Undersecretary Afet Güneş to deliver their testimonies. There are reports that the prosecutor has called the three men in regarding talks MİT had with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Oslo as part of an ongoing investigation of the KCK, an alleged urban network affiliated with the PKK. However, İstanbul's chief public prosecutor, Turan Çolakkadı, has said they have received no information regarding this, and another İstanbul prosecutor completely denied the story.
The Vatan daily reported on a court ruling to apply the statute of limitations to a case concerning a July 2004 accident involving a high-speed train which killed 41 people. Two engine drivers were charged in the trial, which has lasted seven-and-a-half years. The families of the victims have said they will appeal the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).
The Türkiye daily featured a story on flooding in Turkey's northwestern province of Edirne. The story reported that the Tunca and Meriç rivers have overflowed due to a damaged dam in Bulgaria. Farmland, homes located on the rivers' banks and several bridges were inundated by the rising waters.
