Turkey vows support for besieged Syrian town Kobani
5 Oct 2014 5:01 AM IST
Turkey will do what it can to prevent the predominantly Kurdish town of Kobani, near its border with Syria, falling to Islamic State insurgents, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said late on Thursday, but
stopped short of committing to military action.
Hours before Davutoglu’s comments, parliament gave the government powers to order cross-border military incursions against Islamic State, and to allow foreign coalition forces to launch similar operations from Turkish territory.
‘We wouldn’t want Kobani to fall. We’ll do whatever we can to prevent this from happening,’ Davutoglu said in a discussion with journalists broadcast on the A Haber television station, in comments apparently meant to placate Turkey’s Kurdish critics.
But later in the two-hour discussion programme, he appeared to pull back from any suggestion that this meant Turkey was planning a military incursion, saying such a move could drag Ankara into a wider conflict along its 900 km (560-mile) border.
stopped short of committing to military action.
Hours before Davutoglu’s comments, parliament gave the government powers to order cross-border military incursions against Islamic State, and to allow foreign coalition forces to launch similar operations from Turkish territory.
‘We wouldn’t want Kobani to fall. We’ll do whatever we can to prevent this from happening,’ Davutoglu said in a discussion with journalists broadcast on the A Haber television station, in comments apparently meant to placate Turkey’s Kurdish critics.
But later in the two-hour discussion programme, he appeared to pull back from any suggestion that this meant Turkey was planning a military incursion, saying such a move could drag Ankara into a wider conflict along its 900 km (560-mile) border.
Next Story
