Turkey turns inwards as war spreads from Syria to Iraq

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By Jonny Hogg ANKARA (Reuters) - As al Qaeda-inspired Sunni militants spread right along Turkey's southeastern border last month from Syria through Iraq, seizing Turkish hostages as they went, the normally loquacious Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan had little to say. Turkey's outspoken opposition to the crackdown in Syria gained it global headlines as it opened its border and poured aid across to help refugees and rebels alike. The Sunni militant advance and hostage crisis there is overshadowing Erdogan's campaign to become Turkey's first elected president in a vote due next month. "Turkey now has security concerns it didn't have two years ago, therefore its own security is the number one foreign policy aim, rather than transforming the region," said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli of the German Marshall Fund.




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