We are left to fight Islamic State alone, says Turkish President Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday accused the international coalition battling the Islamic State group in Syria of leaving his country to fight the jihadists alone on its own soil.

"They have left us alone in our struggle against this organisation which is shedding our blood both through suicide bombings and by attacks on Kilis," he said, referring to a Turkish border town regularly targeted by rockets fired from Syria.

"In Syria none of those who say they are fighting Daesh (Islamic State) have suffered the kind of losses that we have, nor paid such a heavy price as us," added Erdogan, speaking at a film contest in Istanbul.

The Guardian: Is Vladimir Putin right to label Turkey ‘accomplices of terrorists’?

The relationship hinted at by Russian leader after warplane was shot down is a complex one, and includes links between senior Isis figures and Turkish officials
Since the earliest months of the Syrian war, Turkey has had more direct involvement and more at stake than any of the regional states lined up against Bashar al-Assad.

Turkish borders have been the primary thoroughfare for fighters of all kinds to enter Syria. Its military bases have been used to distribute weapons and to train rebel fighters. And its frontier towns and villages have taken in almost one million refugees.

Turkey’s international airports have also been busy. Many, if not most, of the estimated 15,000-20,000 foreign fighters to have joined Islamic State (Isis) have first flown into Istanbul or Adana, or arrived by ferry along its Mediterranean coast.