"The Turkish republic is a powerful state and never hesitates to take any measures to protect its national security if need be," Ahmet Davutoglu told AFP in an exclusive interview.
"Any group in Syria, or the regime, should not test Turkey's determination," said the minister, speaking in his central home province of Konya.
Turkey, which backs the three-year-old uprising against Syrian
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Despoiler of Deraa...
and hosts many refugees, on Sunday shot down a Syrian fighter jet that it said had breached its airspace.
It has also warned it will protect a historic shrine that is under Turkish jurisdiction but located inside Syria's northern Aleppo province against threats from Islamist myrmidons.
A Turkish flag flies over the Tomb of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of Ottoman Empire founder Osman, and a small garrison with a symbolic number of troops is permanently stationed there.
The site, located 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the border, has been threatened by the bully boy group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original...
(ISIL).
Davutoglu accused ISIL of clashing with Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
rebels while refraining from attacking regime forces.
He said "Turkey is ready to take any legitimate step under international law if its national security, including the area where the tomb of Suleyman Shah is situated, is threatened".