Davutoğlu says ISIL is driven by anger, avoids calling it terrorist

Photo: Reuters

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has continued Ankara's tradition of avoiding to call the Islamic State as a terrorist organization, says militants of the group are driven largely by anger.

"The structure called ISIL, in its core, could be viewed as a terrorized, radical group, but people joined there ... and there are significant numbers of Turkmens, Sunni Arabs, Kurds... we should know it like this. Previous discontent, anger, discrimination and insults gave birth to a wide reaction in a big front," Davutoğlu told NTV news channel on Thursday.

The radical group is currently keeping 49 Turkish citizens as captives for nearly two months, including diplomats and members of Turkish special forces, and Ankara has urged patience as it says struggles to secure their release. Family of three captives recently sued Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Davutoğlu and spy agency chief Hakan Fidan for giving "false promises" on the release of the hostages.

In a bid to explain the reason why the Islamic State came into being, Davutoğlu blamed Iraqi authorities for alienating Sunni Arabs from the political process. "If Sunni Arabs would not be excluded from the [political] process, similar accumulation of anger in major Sunni Arab provinces such as Mosul and Anbar would not exist," Davutoğlu said.

Davutoğlu avoided mentioning the Islamic State as a terrorist organization, according to a transcript provided by state-run Anadolu Agency, similar to Erdoğan and other government officials who have never called it a terrorist organization.