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Turkey seeks extended mandate for operations on Syria, Iraq borders

Iran Press TV

Aug 21, 2015 5:51PM

The Turkish government is reportedly seeking to extend a parliamentary mandate that allows the military to carry out operations against the Daesh Takfiri terrorists on the border with Syria and the Kurdish militants in northern Iraq.

Sources in Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said Friday that the cabinet has sent a document to the office of the speaker of the parliament, seeking to extend for one more year a mandate under which Turkey has been carrying out military operations in the border region.

“The process to extend it has started,” the unidentified official told AFP, adding that the measure only needs the approval of the parliament.

The current mandate, which expires on October 2, enables the military to launch attacks in Iraq and Syria, while it also allows foreign forces to use Turkish territory in operations allegedly against Daesh.

Based on the mandate, Turkish forces made a land incursion into Syria for the first time in February in a bid to relocate a historic tomb. The legislation also gave the United States permission to use Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base for attacks on purported Daesh positions in Syria.

Turkey has been engaged in major military operations in its southern border region over the past weeks. In addition to attacks on alleged positions of Daesh in northern Syria, Turkish military has been conducting offensives against suspected positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey.

The military operations began in the wake of the deadly July 20 bomb attack in the southern Turkish town of Suruc, an ethnically Kurdish town located close to the Kurdish town of Kobani on the other side of the border in Syria, where over 30 people died. The Turkish government blamed Daesh for the bombing. On July 22, the PKK claimed responsibility for the killing of two Turkish police officers, saying they were cooperating with Daesh.