Ankara "doesn't want adventures" as inaction against IS criticized

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey is turning a deaf ear to insistent pressure to take a more pro-active stance in the fight against Islamic State (IS) jihadists, adding to existing strains with the West under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Agence France Presse reported.

Western diplomats have repeatedly made clear they want to see the key NATO member play a key role in the coalition against the militants, who are battling for the Syrian town Kobane just a few kilometres from Turkey.

But even with the jihadists so close, Turkey is wary of giving in to Western pressure to allow coalition jets the use of its air bases, let alone deploy its own troops.

Turkish leaders meanwhile are increasingly bitter over being pressured to help save the single settlement of Kobane, when IS jihadists have already snared swathes of Iraq and Syria while the West did nothing.

"It's not about Kobane," Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu snapped angrily this week. "It's all about putting pressure on Turkey through Kobane. But Turkey has no appetite for adventures."

Including the latest influx of 200,000 Syrians from the Kobane region, Turkey is already hosting 1.5 million refugees, a number that the government icily points out dwarfs the numbers taken in by the West.

"No-one has a right to teach us a lesson," said Davutoglu, who in his previous job as foreign minister spearheaded a controversial policy to make Turkey once again the centre of the Middle East diplomacy.

With Erdogan frequently pointing out that the "world is bigger than five" in reference to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the failure of Turkey's bid to take a non-permanent seat on the council is hardly going to help.