The Turkish government closed down the Damascus Embassy and recalled the ambassador and other diplomats. The decision to shut the embassy down came right after a meeting of PM Erdoğan and President Obama. The consulate in Halep is still open.

Five human rights organizations criticized the draft bill regarding the Law on the Human Rights Institute of Turkey submitted to parliament. They stressed that a human rights institute formed without the contribution of the civil society and controlled by the state was meaningless.

A delegation of Swedish politicians and human rights advocates came to Turkey to visit political women prisoners. They attended the Newroz celebrations and criticized the excessive use of violence and tear gas by the police. In an interview with bianet, they also gave their opinion about Turkish politics and the country's EU accession.

The publication of the Özgür Gündem newspaper was suspended for one month. The Gün Printing Company was raided by the police and the Sunday's issue of the newspaper was confiscated.

The Initiative for Solidarity with Arrested Students published the "Map of Unnamed Students" of Turkey in order to communicate judicial and administrative rights violations faced by students. The map also intends to follow up the situation of arrested students.

Student Kırmızıgül was released pending trial after 25 months behind bars. He stands accused of "membership in an illegal organization" because he was wearing a keffiyeh.

Convict Serap Şimşek suffered a stroke and fell ill with cancer while serving her life sentence. She has been lying at the infirmary with her hand cuffed for 8 months now. Convict Gülay Çetin passed away 1 month before the Forensic Medicine sent the report to release her immediately.

The website of the Human Rights Foundation has been hacked. The attackers threatened the organization saying "One night we might suddenly come".

The Court of Appeals approved the prison sentence of 22 years and 10 months handed down to Ogün Samast, murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. Samast was sentenced on charges of "premeditated murder" and "unlicensed possession of weapons".

Lawyer Eyüboğlu said after the second hearing of the trial related to Şefika Etik who was killed by her husband, "Today we witnessed the same woman story we see all the time. We believe that the court decides for a life sentence, but that won't bring Şefika back".

At a meeting of the AKP Faction, Prime Minister Erdoğan made statements about this year's Newroz celebrations and the government's new regulations for relatives of "martyrs" with reference to the recent helicopter crash in Afghanistan. A side blow also went to the media.

Seven people were arrested because of their alleged membership in the RedHack group. RedHack commented, "The arrested people are not our members." and announced to proceed more radical from now on.

The Journalists Association of Turkey condemned the attack on the office of the Zaman newspaper in Rotterdam on 19 March.

According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Turkey is among the 16 countries of particular concern regarding religious freedom. Other countries in the same category are e.g. Iran, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.

The Immigrant Solidarity Network and international non-governmental organizations went to the immigration centre in Edirne after the four-day "Transborder Conference" to demand "the right to free movement and a world without borders".

BDP Deputy Ertuğrul Kürkçü talked to bianet about the massive police intervention against the Newroz celebrations in Mersin. Kurdish politician Ahmet Türk was beaten by the police in Batman and underwent medical treatment.

Police officer Yakup Kurtan who had his picture taken with Ogün Samast, murderer of Turkish-Armenian journalists Hrant Dink, holding the Turkish flag after the offence was promoted to Deputy Chief of the Malatya Police.

According to the indictment of the trial related to the Union of Kurdish Communities prepared by Prosecutor Çimen, Prof Ersanlı is facing imprisonment of 22.5 years on charges of leadership of an illegal organization. Nobel Peace candidate Zarakolu is facing 15 years in jail.

17 people were taken into custody in the scope of the probe into RedHack, the hackers group that seized and published data from the Ankara Police Directorate and POLNET. RedHack told bianet that none of the persons in custody were members of their group.

Journalist Ahmet Şık is facing an investigation on the grounds of his statements made to the press when he was released from prison after 375 days in detention. He is alleged of having identified judges and prosecutors as a target.