Turkey: We can't fight IS alone

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and newly appointed NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg kicked off a series of consultations between NATO, the US and Turkey with a press conference in Ankara on Thursday.

Supporters of US-led airstrikes against the "Islamic State" (IS) in Syria and Iraq have grown annoyed with Turkey, whose president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has refrained from providing military support to the mission. However, the ongoing battle for the Syrian border town of Kobani poses an imminent threat to Turkish security, a problem that officials from the United States and European Union hope will help prompt Ankara to join the internationally coordinated mission.

Cavusoglu emphasized on Thursday, however, that Turkey had not changed its stance on key issues, namely the necessity of sending in troops to Syria.

"There is a necessity [for] political change. As long as [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad] is in power, this status quo will continue. We now have different groups in the area and we can never guess where the terrorist groups will target and will continue to fight," the Turkish foreign minister said, adding: "[You] can't challenge the balance of power with air bombardments."

"It is not realistic to expect Turkey to conduct a ground operation on its own," he added.

Pointing to Turkey's role in taking on more than a million Syrian refugees, as well as its repeated warnings to allies over regional security since the civil war broke out, Cavusoglu said that Ankara was far from apathetic about the threat across the border.

Though the US has carried out numerous airstrikes against IS positions in Kobani, the Pentagon has rejected sending in soldiers, as the United States does not have a "willing, capable, effective partner on the ground inside Syria right now."

Turkey wants no-fly zone

In mid-September, IS launched an offensive on the Syrian town of Kobani, which lies close to the Turkish border. The local Kurdish population has been struggling to retain control over the area, but even with US airstrikes destroying IS targets, the battle for the town appears on the verge of collapse.

Turkish President Erdogan has been demanding the creation of a no-fly zone and a buffer along the border. Though France has supported the idea, Washington has expressed reluctance, given the cost and complexity of creating one.

NATO chief Stoltenberg also weighed in on the issue at Thursday's press conference: "[A no-fly zone] has not been on the table of any NATO discussions yet and it is not an issue which is discussed in NATO."

Stoltenberg and US envoys were scheduled to meet with Turkey's president, prime minister and defense minister later on Thursday.

Kurds protest

Kurds in Turkey and across Europe have launched protests this week to draw attention to Ankara's inaction and to call for the US-led coalition to do more.

Peaceful protests have taken place at the European Parliament, the Dutch parliament and across several cities in Germany. However, overnight Wednesday and into Thursday morning, Islamist supporters clashed with the demonstrators in the northern cities of Hamburg and Celle. At least 20 people were injured.

Meanwhile, in southeastern Turkey, at least 14 people were killed in similar clashes.

Relations between the Turkish government and the country's Kurdish population have long been tense. The separatist guerrilla movement known as the PKK - the Kurdistan Worker's Party - engaged a decades-long conflict with the Turkish government that claimed more than 40,000 lives.

Despite a ceasefire last year, tensions remain strained between Ankara and the PKK, raising concern among Turkey's allies that the animosity between the two sides might lie at the root of Erdogan's inaction in Kobani.

kms/mkg (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)