Turkey's parliament to vote on Syria mandate

ANKARA

CİHAN photo

Turkey’s parliament will convene for an extraordinary session on Sept. 3 to vote on a motion to extend the mandate of the Turkish Armed Forces to take military action in Iraq and Syria.

The motion submitted by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) on Aug. 21 said there was an increased risk regarding national security.

The motion, which is for the extension of a motion adopted on Oct. 2, 2014, and which authorized the launch of military incursions into Syria and Iraq for possible operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), was opened for signatures during the latest cabinet meeting. 

The motion is particularly important for the government amid the nearly month-long campaign of air strikes against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in southeastern Anatolia and northern Iraq, as the motion originally also includes terrorist threats from Iraqi territory.

The move to extend the mandate follows President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s call for snap elections in Turkey, which will be held on Nov. 1 after the failure of coalition talks between the country’s political parties.

An interim cabinet was established and announced on Aug. 28 by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu after Erdoğan assigned him to form a caretaker government to steer Turkey to a rerun of June’s general election.