Turkey Says Won't Allow 'Terrorist' Groups at Syria Border

Turkey said Friday it would not tolerate the presence of "terrorist" groups such as the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) or al-Qaida on Syrian soil near the Turkish border.

"Whether it is the PKK or al-Qaida, we will not allow a terrorist organization to set up at our borders," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Turkish television channel Kanal 24.

"It has nothing to do with ethnicity, religious belief or faith. We consider al-Qaida is a threat, we consider the PKK a threat," he said, without specifying what measures Ankara might take.

Davutogul's comments come after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Syria of giving Kurdish rebels a free hand in the north of the conflict-torn country and warned that Ankara would not hesitate to strike.

"In the north, it (President Bashar Assad's regime) has allotted five provinces to the Kurds, to the terrorist organization," Erdogan said Wednesday, referring to the PKK.

Davutoglu said however that Turkey did not consider the Kurdish populations of Syria "a threat or a source of tension".

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and by much of the international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.

Relations between Turkey and Syria have deteriorated since the start of the uprising against Assad's rule in Syria in March 2011, with Ankara vehemently criticizing the regime's brutal crackdown against dissent.