ANKARA - Turkey’s foreign minister said Monday European and U.S. forces did not fully respect procedures in international law to form a coalition to take action against Libya’s leader Gaddafi.
"Firstly, there is a procedure in international law for such a coalition. We believe that these procedures have not been fully respected for Libya," Ahmet Davutoglu said.
Several western nations, led by France, Britain and the United States, launched air attacks on Libya on Sunday.
Davutoglu said Turkey exerted efforts to accomplish a result without a UN Security Council resolution or a military action on Libya, however, these efforts failed.
"We have expressed our support to the resolution. However, the goal should be to ensure transportation of humanitarian aid, stop clashes in Libya by the help of weapons embargo and no-fly zone. The goal should not be to start a full scale war," Davutoglu said.
Earlier in the day, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Turkey wanted the international military operation against Gaddafi forces to be concluded as soon as possible so that Libyans can settle their own future. Erdogan said that military intervention should avoid ending in an occupation of the oil and natural gas rich North African country.
On March 1, Erdogan urged Gaddafi to give up power and called for an immediate end to violence, Davutoglu recalled, adding, "Turkey called on everybody to act responsibly to help Libya survive this crisis stronger."
"We have made a point of avoiding a long and full operation in Libya, like the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan. We made suggestions to all parties," he said.
Davutoglu said Turkey has followed resolute and consistent policies about recent developments in the Middle East which he said was in need of change that should bring human rights, democracy and a better governance to the region.