Türkiye extends military mandates in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon

ANKARA

The parliament has approved presidential decrees extending the deployment of Turkish troops in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon amid the government's ongoing “terror-free Türkiye” initiative.

In a plenary session on Oct. 21, lawmakers first approved a motion to extend the participation of Turkish troops in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) for another two years.

The ruling and most opposition parties backed the motion, while the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) abstained.

Parliament then passed another decree extending the military mandate in Iraq and Syria for three years. The motion was supported by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), İYİ (Good) Party and New Path Party, but opposed by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and DEM Party.

The memorandum, signed by President and AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, cited “the continuing terrorist threat in areas adjacent to Türkiye's southern land borders” and “the fact that lasting stability has not yet been established, continuing to pose risks and threats to national security” as key grounds for the extension.

"Terrorist organizations, primarily the PKK, PYD, YPG and ISIL in Syria, continue to maintain their presence and pose a threat to our country, our national security and civilians," it said.

"On the other hand, the continued presence of PKK and ISIL elements in Iraq, along with attempts at ethnic-based separatism, poses a direct threat to regional peace, stability and our country's security."

The vote came as the government pursues what it calls a “terror-free Türkiye” process, under which PKK first declared a ceasefire and later announced its plan to lay down arms following instructions from jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan.

A parliamentary commission overseeing the process is reportedly debating whether to send a delegation to İmralı prison island off Istanbul to meet Öcalan.

The CHP argued the extension undermines the initiative.

"If the commission is going to İmralı, why is the [Turkish Armed Forces] TSK going to Iraq and Syria? If the TSK will continue military operations and deployment in Iraq and Syria, what is the purpose of the commission going to the island?” CHP lawmaker Namık Tan said in the chamber.

The DEM Party called the decree illegitimate and counterproductive. "We all see that neither war resolutions nor security policies have solved the problems in Türkiye or the region. On the contrary, they have deepened them and even dragged the region into a state of chaos and a spiral of violence,” MP Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit said at a press conference on Oct. 20.