Eurasia Press & News
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said late on Thursday that the content of a one-year mandate allowing Turkey to carry out military operations in foreign countries to be renewed in Parliament on Oct. 4 might remain the same but could also contain changes.
On Oct. 4, 2012, after mortar shells from Syria killed five civilians in a border town in Turkey, the government received a one-year mandate from Parliament for military operations in foreign countries. As the mandate is set to expire on Oct. 4 of this year, the government is currently working on a new mandate that would continue to allow Turkey to conduct military operations in foreign countries.
Speaking during a joint press conference with his Romanian counterpart, Victor Ponta, on Thursday, Erdoğan said: “The mandate that will be introduced on Oct. 4 might be the same [as the old mandate], but the mandate could include some changes to it. Currently, the Foreign Ministry and the General Staff are working on the mandate.” Erdoğan added that the government will evaluate the mandate that will be presented to it and take the mandate to Parliament for approval.
Eyes are now on the scope of the new mandate given that the one-year mandate approved last year had sparked a heated debate between the government and the opposition. When the mandate was first introduced to Parliament a year ago, some opposition parties had said the motion would amount to a declaration of war against Syria.
Parliamentary measures authorizing the government to conduct military operations beyond Turkey’s borders open the way for military measures in addition to retaliatory strikes.
