Turkey rejects Libyan rebels' charges over NATO attacks

Rebuffing accusations by Libyan rebels, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu yesterday denied claims that Turkey failed to take a consistent stance in the face of the Libyan crisis due to concerns over the fate of Turkish businesses there or that Ankara is blocking NATO attacks on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. He also insisted that Turkey's Libya policy is based on principles, not supposed interests. No single country controls NATO's Libya operation, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Selcuk Unal told the BBC, denying a report in right-wing US daily The Washington Times that Turkey has been slowing down the operation. "Turkey has been actively participating in a number of efforts within NATO and by itself to impose the no-fly zone, arms embargo and providing humanitarian aid," Ibrahim Kalin, chief foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told the Times in an e-mail. "Actually, Turkey is the only country at the moment that is conducting a major humanitarian aid and medical operation in Benghazi and Misurata."