Turkey's parliament have voted to extend the authorisation to deploy Turkish troops in Iraq and Syria.
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Turkey’s parliament voted on Saturday to extend by a year a mandate authorising the deployment of Turkish troops in Iraq and Syria, stepping up pressure against an independence referendum in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region in two days’ time.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey would take security, economic and political steps in response to the referendum, which President Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman described as a “terrible mistake” that would trigger new regional crises.
Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest army, said on Friday that the Iraqi vote would threaten its security and force it to slap sanctions on a neighbour and trading partner, although it did not specify what measures it might take.
Asked on Saturday if a cross-border operation was among the options, Yildirim told reporters: “Naturally, it is a question of timing as to when security, economic and security options are implemented. Developing conditions will determine that.”
The United States and other Western powers have, like Turkey, urged authorities in the semi-autonomous Iraqi region to cancel Monday’s vote. They say the move by the oil-producing area distracts from the fight against Islamic State.
In Iraq, a Kurdistan regional government delegation arrived in Baghdad for talks with the Iraqi government in an effort to defuse tensions, but a senior Kurdish official said the vote was going ahead.
The mandate approved by Turkey’s parliament on Saturday was first passed in 2014 with the aim of tackling threats from within its southern neighbours Iraq and Syria. It had been due to expire in October.