Military’s mandate to conduct cross-border operations in northern Iraq extended for a year

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey’s Parliament passed a bill extending the military’s mandate to conduct cross-border operations in northern Iraq against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, for another year. The secret session was closed to the press, and details will remain private for 10 years according to Parliament regulations. With 447 deputies in attendance, the decision was passed with 14 objections and one abstention.

According to reports, the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, and the opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, and Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, all lent their approval. The pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, was the only party that stood against the extension.

“[The government] seems to want peace, but it’s bringing up the persistency of war. It is putting the Kurdish issue into a deadlock,” Hurriyet Daily News cited BDP deputy Akın Birdal as saying.