ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkish parliament on Tuesday approved a presidential motion which allows the country’s troops to carry out military operations inside Iraq and Syria for another two years, reported state media. Turkish troops have been present in the Kurdistan Region for decades, carrying out attacks against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in bordering areas. They have invaded several cities in northern Syria, including Kurdish ones, in recent years. Ankara has set up tens of military bases in both countries. The Turkish parliament convened on Tuesday and approved a motion, submitted by the country’s presidency, which asked for the extension of the deployment of Turkish troops to Iraq and Syria for another two years, reported Anadolu Agency. Opposition parties, including the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (HEDEP), were against the motion. Ankara has intensified its attacks on alleged positions of the PKK in the Kurdistan Region and Kurdish forces in northeast Syria (Rojava) over the past two weeks after the PKK carried out an attack against the country’s interior ministry in the capital Ankara. The PKK is an armed group that for decades has fought for the rights of Kurds in Turkey. It is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara. Erbil-based Kurdistan counterterrorism on Tuesday reported that a Turkish drone targeted a car allegedly carrying members of the PKK in Erbil’s Koya district, resulting in casualties. Turkey has devastated Rojava’s energy and basic services facilities, leaving most areas without water and electricity. Ankara claims that the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the backbone of the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), is the Syrian offshoot of the PKK.
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