In one recent incident, a 6-month-old baby with a high temperature waited for help for seven hours due to the ambulances' difficulty reaching the house of the Ozturk family in the northern province of Ordu.

The incident occurred in Perşembe village, where the snow reached to 1.5 meters.

Ordu Metropolitan Municipality declared that teams had opened the snow-covered road for passage of ambulances trying to reach patients in 245 different incidents despite the difficulties.

Fifteen hours of effort

In Rize, another northern province of Turkey, due to heavy snow it took medical technicians 15 hours to reach a baby who had been scalded.

The ambulance only covered 25 kilometers in more than half a day due to snow in Kalkandere town of Rize province.

In western province of Çanakkale, a 55-year-old woman who lived in a shed was found frozen to death during the heavy snow.

The heavy snows have paralyzed many provinces of Turkey for almost a week.

Schools were closed on Monday in 21 provinces of Turkey: Giresun, Batman, Sinop, Bitlis, Van, Zonguldak, Edirne, Şırnak, Bartın, Artvin, Samsun, Rize, Kırklareli, Kastamonu, Trabzon, Muş, Ordu, Yozgat, Tekirdağ, Karabük and Mardin.

The recent heavy snow affected the Marmara, Black Sea and Eastern Anatolian regions. In some provinces, the snow reached as high as 1.5 meters.

Security sources said that units from the Çanakkale Police Department launched an operation early in the morning and searched many houses and workplaces in the city.

Several businessmen along with Prof. Dr. Sedat Laçiner, the former Rector of Çanakkale Ondokuz Mayıs University (COMU), were detained for links with the illegal organization.

FETÖ, also known as the Parallel State Structure led by US-based so-called cleric Fethullah Gülen, is an illegal formation inside state institutions such as police forces and the judiciary. Members of the organization are accused of orchestrating a coup plot in late 2013 against then-Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan and his government, wiretapping hundreds of prominent figures and money laundering.

Detainees were taken to Çanakkale police headquarters for interrogation after medical checkup in Çanakkale Public Hospital.

The rescued came from Afghanistan, Burma and Tibet, said a Turkish Coast Guard official on condition of anonymity.

The incident took place off the coast of the province's Ayvacik district in the Aegean Sea. The boat was headed towards the Greek island of Lesbos.

According to the International Organization for Migration, 3,563 people have died in the Mediterranean so far this year as they attempted to reach European shores, a figure that includes 589 around Turkey.

The boat reportedly capsized off Babakale village, near Ayvacık, for unknown reasons. Acting on a tip from town residents, a coast guard boat rescued 27 others who were on board.

Seven children were among the victims who drowned after the boat sank on the Greece-bound clandestine journey. Coast guard officials did not disclose the nationalities of the people who were on board the boat.

It is unclear how many people had been on board before the accident. Coast guard officials are still continuing search-and-rescue efforts.

Thursday's coastal guard operations are the latest in a series of attempts to seize migrants who are trying to reach the Greek island of Lesbos from Ayvacık town on Turkey's western coast.

Authorities said they have seized a total of 423 migrants from Iran, Iraqi, Eritrea and Afghanistan on their boats. A crowd of Syrian refugees were among the migrants, who were held in nine different operations, based on a tip-off from the town residents.

The migrants including women and children were sent back to Ayvacık after being identified by coast guard officials.

There has been an upsurge in the recent months in the numbers of refugees and migrants, who attempted to reach Greece, travelling on shaky vessels. Europe has been rocked by the migrant crisis and the misery of refugees, mostly from war-torn Syria.

European leaders have bowed to overwhelming domestic and international pressure and German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared the EU will accept one million migrants until the end of 2015.

During the operation, a total of 435 illegal migrants were arrested. 345 migrants are from Syria, 64 are from Afghanistan, 19 are from Myanmar and 7 are from Pakistan. Turkish officials also arrested three people helping the migrants to flee.

The migrants reportedly were planning to escape to Greece's Lesbos Island. Officials also captured two boats and dozens of life vests.

After being questioned, the immigrants were brought to the Foreigners Deportation Center.

Turkey's western coast, which brackets the Aegean Sea with Greece, an EU country, on the far side, is constantly receiving immigrants – especially from Syria – who are accompanied with their smugglers, abandoned by their smugglers, or simply left afloat to fend for themselves, on their journey which seemingly will lead them to a better standard of living in Europe. The immigrants are often charged an astronomical amount of thousands of dollars for the boat trip of their life, and usually abandoned after their traffickers receive their payment.

The Maltese-flagged liner, CELESTYAL CRYSTAL, carrying 853 passengers and 382 crew members, was en route from the Greek island of Mykonos to Istanbul when it crashed with the Marshall islands-flagged tanker, STI Pimlico, travelling from Russia's Tuapse port to Malta, according to a maritime statement by the country's coastal authority, Directorate General of Coastal Safety.

The Directorate General of Coastal Safety stated the cruise liner, damaged on its bow, was anchored off the Gallipoli coast and the tanker, which suffered damage on its starboard, immediately anchored in the transit traffic line off the peninsula. The Directorate also said that the collision led to an oil leak in the tanker.

The packed liner, which is 161.8 meters in height, crashed with the tanker, of 184.26 meters in height, at 1:25 a.m. local time, despite all warnings for collission by the Traffic Control Center.

After the accident, the Dardanelles Strait was closed to two-way passages by transit vessels. Three tug boats and three rescue boats set sail to rescue civilians, stranded on both vessels in the Strait.

The 100th anniversary of March 18, 1915 – the day which would later be celebrated in Turkey as "Çanakkale Victory and Martyrs’ Day" – has brought together thousands of people across the country and abroad. 

This poignant day of remembrance marks the cataclysmic, months-long violence of the Gallipoli Campaign when Ottoman forces suffered huge losses defending Turkish shores from the invading Allies in WWI.

Turkish President Recep Tayyıp Erdoğan celebrates the day with a released massage and emphasized the need to keep unity and solidarity.

"It is only by embracing our country, flag, unity and solidarity that we can pay our debt of gratitude to hundreds of thousands of martyrs lying in Gallipoli," he said.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu also emphasized the significance of the national unity and brotherhood on the Anatolian soil as the key to the Çanakkale Victory of 1915.

“This blessed war recalls the importance of national unity and solidarity to the minds of our nation” Davutoğlu said during his speech to the crowd in the western province of Çanakkale gathered for the celebration.

At the commemoration ceremony for the 100th anniversary of Çanakkale Victory Day -- the battle which marked a turnaround in favor of the Turks against the Allied Forces during World War I, Davutoğlu noted that their ancestors who died in Çanakkale had displayed the main quality of Turkey's future: "brotherhood," which he called a holy legacy.

During the battle against enemies in the trenches, the premier said people from Iraq, Syria, Balkans and Azerbaijan had fought shoulder to shoulder so as not to leave Istanbul - capital of the Ottoman Empire - at the hands of the Allies.

He stressed that the faith of neighbors and once Ottoman territories Syria, Iraq, Azerbaijan and the Balkans was "entrusted to the merciful and caressing hands of the Republic of Turkey."

In a clear reference to current crises in the region, Davutoğlu also pledged to stand against those who oppress the grandsons of the Çanakkale martyrs that came from Aleppo, Al-Quds (Jerusalem), Kirkuk, Basra and Baku.

The victory against the Allied Forces gave Turkey a massive moral boost that enabled it to wage a war of independence and eventually, in 1923, form a republic from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire.

Speaking during the ceremony, the Garrison Commander Rear Admiral Hasan Nihat Doğan stressed that the victory had been gained by the bravery and steadfastness of the Turkish soldiers.

“The Çanakkale victory had major effects, not only for the Turkish history but also for the history of the whole world," Doğan said.

"This land, Çanakkale, is a gift to us from a generation who sacrificed their life and we will protect this gift at the cost of our lives," he said.

Turkish Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz, as well as Education Minister Nabi Avcı and Youth and Sports Minister Akif Çağatay Kılıç were also present at the ceremony.

The campaign is accepted as one of the greatest Ottoman victories during World War I and a major Allied Forces failure -- but there were many casualties on both sides after eight months of fighting.

Around 13,000 New Zealanders and 50,000 Australians fought during the war, and at least 2,700 New Zealanders and 8,700 Australians were killed.

Ottoman forces lost almost 60,000 soldiers. Around 1,700 Indian soldiers, fighting for the British crown, also lost their lives.

The Canakkale Governor, Ahmet Cinar, said that about 337 Syrian immigrants were on board and there was no resistance, casualties or injuries on the ship.

During the operation, authorities faced some challenges in bringing the ship to a halt. The governor said that despite all the warnings from Turkish officials, the ship wouldn't stop.

According to the police, five people, including two crew members and three foreign smugglers were taken into custody after the Turkish coast guards' operation.

There were 85 children and 67 women among the immigrants, police officials said.

The immigrants were taken to the port of Gallipoli, where they underwent a medical examination. They will also be questioned by Turkish police.

For the duration of the operation, the Canakkale Strait suspended all transit, which included halting Gallipoli-Lapseki ferry shuttles.

The UN Refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration stated that nearly 1,900 migrants intending to enter Europe have died during their passage on the Mediterranean Sea last year.