ANKARA
"Turkey opposes the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as much as the Assad regime in Syria," Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Friday.
But Davutoglu rejected as "funny" a motion from the main opposition party to put Turkish 'boots on the ground' at Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, the Syrian border town under attack by ISIL.
Opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu made the motion in parliament on Thursday. The motion proposes ground troop operations by the Turkish army against ISIL that would be limited to the Kobani region. The opposition has, however, rejected a separate motion that would allow foreign troops to operate on Turkish territory.
Davutoglu spoke to reporters after visiting the Police Chief Atalay Urker of the eastern Bingol province, who was wounded in a terrorist attack on Thursday.
The Turkish parliament accepted a government motion on October 2 authorizing military action in Syria and Iraq against any terrorist group, including ISIL.
Protest violence supporting the use of Turkish military force against ISIL at Kobani broke out on Wednesday. At least 31 people were killed in the violence. The nationwide protests broke out after ISIL- militants penetrated the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani on Monday. The protesters have used the pretext that the Turkish government has allegedly done nothing to halt the relentless advance of the militant group in the Syrian city.
Turkish Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker stated Thursday that 116 people had been arrested in the violence, and charges were brought against an additional 294 people who had violated the curfew.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party, which is fighting at Kobani, is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey as well as by the U.S. and the European Union.
www.aa.com.tr/en
