Turkey and its neighbours: Delicate balance HOW to strike a balance between morality and strategic interest? The question has long vexed Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's foreign minister and architect of a newly muscular foreign policy. Never more so than over Syria's president, Bashar Assad. No country has gone as far as Turkey in trying to topple Mr Assad. It has opened its doors to over 35,000 Syrian refugees, spearheaded the establishment of the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC), provided a haven (and maybe arms) for the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and quietly lobbied America for military intervention. The Turks feel they cannot stand by and watch the bloodletting of innocents in a former Ottoman domain. The civil war in Syria is threatening to spill over and destabilise the region, including Turkey. The downing of a Turkish fighter jet by the Syrians might have led to intervention. Yet an emergency NATO meeting urged restraint. NATO's secretary-general says intervention is not under discussion. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, has hinted that Turkey might take matters into its own hands. He told parliament that "any military element from Syria moving too close to the Turkish border that is deemed a security risk will be seen as a threat and will be a military target." Turkey's wrath could be "devastating," he roared, to thunderous applause from members of his mildly Islamist Justice and Development (AK) party. This week Turkey continued to mass troops along the border. Is Turkey preparing to attack? Few believe it could do so alone. Polls find most Turks opposed to war. Many argue that since Turkey is bogged down in a 28-year-old war against rebels of the Kurdistan Workers" Party (PKK), it cannot afford military adventures elsewhere. Although millions of Turks protest against Israeli behaviour in Gaza, there has yet to be a mass rally in support of the Syrian opposition. The Muslim right believes Turkey is being used by America and Israel against Syria, and that the real target is Iran. "Their plan is to have Sunni Muslims fight Shia Muslims, and Turkey has become the chief pawn in this dirty game," says one commentator. It hardly seems to matter that America is opposed to Turkish intervention. Unnamed Pentagon officials quoted by the Wall Street Journal suggested that the Turkish fighter may have been shot down in Syrian airspace while it was testing Syrian air defences. Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has jumped in to offer "objective information" on the incident. Another option is a buffer zone to offer safety for civilians fleeing the violence and a base for the FSA. This is not being encouraged by Western allies, either. Loud objections also come from the Kurds, who believe that Turkey is bent on suppressing the Syrian Kurds (many of whom support the PKK). There are reports that Mr Assad has allowed PKK fighters to cross into Syria from Iraq so as to fend off the FSA in the north, where it is gaining ground. The appointment of a Kurd, Abdulbasit Sida, who has called for constitutional guarantees for Syria's Kurds, as the SNC's new head, has been shrugged off as a Turkish ploy. Syria's ethnic Armenians, descendants from survivors of the Ottoman massacres in 1915, are also queasy. Mr Erdogan's secular critics echo Mr Assad's claims that he is playing a sectarian card by propping up Islamists across the Middle East. Turkey's Syrian policy is failing to win public support. Mr Erdogan has labelled his media critics "sell-outs." Gurcan Balik, an adviser to Mr Davutoglu, chose to vent over Twitter. I read almost every thing that is written about Syria carefully. I feel like jumping in forcefully but then I tell myself the best response to a fool is silence," he tweeted. "That would be you," shot back Ihsan Yilmaz, a columnist for Zaman newspaper. In truth, most Turks prefer the war with Syria to stay one of words.