Turkey PM

Turkey PM: Syria no-fly zone needed

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The Turkish prime minister has told the BBC that Turkey will push again for a no-fly zone over northern Syria to protect civilians fleeing both Islamic State and Syrian government forces.

Ahmet Davutoglu said he would work with the US to establish a "safe area" conflict.

Mr Davutoglu did not rule out sending Turkish troops in to protect the area.

Turkey is home to more Syrian refugees than any other country - more than 1.8 million according to recent UN figures.

In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC's Jeremy Bowen, Mr Davutoglu called on the international community to do more to resolve the four-year conflict in Syria and denied that Turkey had helped so-called Islamic State and other extremist groups.

He criticised the five permanent members of the UN Security Council for failing to make a "strong decision" to stop the atrocities in Syria.

Asked whether Turkey was doing enough to prevent the large numbers of migrants reaching Europe though his country, he said it was the responsibility of the international community to stem the flow of migrants by bringing the four-year conflict in Syria to an end.

Despite not ruling out the use of Turkish ground troops, Mr Davutoglu said he preferred to strengthen Syria's moderate opposition.

"If there is enough power of moderate forces in Syria, there will not be any necessity for other countries including Turkey to send any ground troops," he said

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