Fierce fighting between the Islamic State militant group and Kurdish forces just over the border in Syria has brought the battle closer to Turkey, triggering a surge of tens of thousands of refugees.
Turkey is resisting because it fears that arming Kurdish men to fight the group could complicate peace talks with Turkish insurgents within its own borders.
The Islamic State group's offensive against the Syrian city of Kobani, a few kilometres from the border, has sent 130,000 refugees to seek safety in Turkey in the last few days.
The conflict in Syria had already led to more than one million people flooding over the border in the past three-and-a-half years.
But in addition to the refugee crisis, hundreds of Kurds in and around this city near the frontier have clashed with Turkish police, who fired tear gas and water cannons.
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The Kurds say Turkey is hampering their efforts to let them cross into Syria and help their brethren.
Syrian Kurdish fighters were crossing back and forth over the border, while other Syrian Kurds were seen selling livestock to raise money for weapons.
Not far away on the border, the black flag of the Islamic State could be seen flying in a captured Syrian village along with the smoke from mortar fire.
Spillover from the Syria poses a problem for Turkey.
The only local fighters capable of resisting the Islamic State group are Syrian Kurds aligned with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has fought a three-decade insurgency in southeastern Turkey.
Turkish officials have said PKK militants from Turkey are streaming to Syria to join the fight.
The conflict in Syria already is inflaming tensions with Turkish Kurds and could undermine peace talks with the PKK.
Turkey's ambivalence about the fight between Kurds and the Islamic State group, which could leave the PKK either drained or emboldened, could further complicate its participation in a US-led coalition against the Islamic State group.
While joining the coalition, Turkey had declined to take part in combat.
