Türkei weitet Mandat für Militäreinsätze in Syrien und dem Irak aus

Seit Wochen intensiviert die türkische Armee ihre Angriffe auf die PYD in Syrien und die PKK im Nordirak.

Nun hat das türkische Parlament auch seine Zustimmung zur Ausweitung dieser Angriffe gegeben, die besonders in Norostsyrien zu kriegsähnlichen Zuständen geführt haben, unter denen ganz besonders Zivilisten zu leiden haben:

Turkey’s parliament voted on Tuesday to extend the mandate that allows its security forces to launch cross-border operations in Syria and Iraq for another two years.

The 600-seat Turkish parliament passed the mandate with 357 for and 164 against votes, which allows Turkey to send troops to Syria and northern Iraq.

The extension comes after Turkey’s large-scale air offensive in northern Syria this month targeting dominant Syrian Kurdish groups.

Erdogan’s ruling coalition largely voted for the bill with several opposition parties including the nationalist Good Party and liberal-leaning DEVA also announcing their support.

Turkey’s pro-opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Pro-Kurdish Green Left Party, meanwhile, remained opposed to the extension.

Erdogan requested the extension, citing the “terrorist threats and security risks” that “all terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria pose.” Under the mandate, which first came into force in 2014 and has been extended several times, Turkey conducted multiple ground incursions in Syria and Iraq.

The extension comes as Erdogan renewed his threat to set up a 30-kilometer-deep (some 19 miles) buffer zone beyond Turkey’s Syria and Iraq borders in response to a suicide bombing attack on Turkey’s national police headquarters in Ankara on Oct 1. The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been fighting the Turkish forces for self-rule inside Turkey since 1984, claimed responsibility for the attack.

In retaliation for the attack, the Turkish security forces earlier this month unleashed a large-scale air offensive against the northern Syrian areas held by the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The SDF, in turn, denied any connection with the attack and accused Turkey of destroying civilian structures in the area including power grids, potable water stations and schools.

Turkey, which considers the SDF a threat to its national security as ranks of its backbone, People’s Protection Units, is largely composed of former PKK militants, is pressing Washington to cut off its alliance with the Syrian Kurdish-led group, which is the main ally of the US-led international coalition in the fight against the Islamic State.