Turkey’s Prime Minister faces mockery over Islam remarks

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu faced mockery on Thursday, October 15, over his grasp of both geopolitics and geometry, after saying there was "360 degrees of difference" between Turkey's brand of Islam and that of the Islamic State extremist group, MSN News reports.

Davutoglu made the apparent gaffe on Turkish television while seeking to rebut claims that the government's failure to crack down on IS jihadists was responsible for double bombings on Saturday in Ankara that killed 99 people.

"There is a 360-degree, not 180-degree, difference between the Islam we defend and what Daesh has on its mind," Davutoglu told Show TV late Wednesday, using another name for the IS group.

"One (IS) is exclusionary and the other (Turkey) is tolerant and is an example of how Islam and democracy could coexist," he said.

The opposition and bloggers were quick to point out that 360 degrees implies a full circle -- the opposite of what Davutoglu apparently wanted to say.

Turkey was long accused by its NATO allies of not taking a tougher line against IS as the group seized swathes of northern Iraq and Syria and battled Kurdish militias.

Davutoglu also drew ridicule at the weekend when he said in his first remarks after the Ankara bombings that the suicide bomber in a July attack in the border town of Suruc that killed 34 people had been "caught and brought to justice".