ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—The Turkish government submitted a motion to the parliament on Tuesday requesting a one-year extension of the mandate authorizing deployment of Turkish forces in Iraq and Syria, Turkish media reported.

The motion requests authorization of Turkish forces to cross borders and enter Iraq and Syria in operations against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and also to permit foreign forces fighting Islamic State to operate on Turkish soil.

“Faced with this situation arising from Iraq and Syria, all kinds of threats pose a risk to our national security,” reads the motion, according to Anadolu Agency.

The document, which was signed by Prime Minister Binali Yıldırı adds that, “in accordance with our rights under international law,” it is essential to extend the military’s mandate.

Parliament will debate the motion on October 1 and it is expected the military’s mandate will be extended on October 2, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

For years, Turkey has been occasionally carrying out airstrikes against alleged PKK positions in the northern Kurdistan Region. The sorties were suspended during the ceasefire between the PKK and Turkish army but resumed when the truce crumbled last summer.

On August 24, Turkish forces crossed the border into northern Syria in its Operation Euphrates Shield, which it claimed is to clear the border area of “terrorists” – naming Islamic State and Syrian Kurdish forces Ankara alleges are tied to the PKK.

The Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) who are the main security force controlling Rojava, northern Syria, claim that Turkey has violated their territory repeatedly.

In an infographic published on Tuesday, the YPG reported that between January 2016 and August 24, 2016, the Turkish army “violated Rojava, northern Syria borders 9 times; targeted Rojava territory 85 times, deploying artillery & heavy weapons; killed 10 and injured 24 civilians at the borders.”




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