Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Thursday said Turkey and the Iraqi central government would carry out a joint operation against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, Reuters reported.
The cross-border operation could start after Iraq holds a general election scheduled for May, CNN Turk quoted Çavuşoğlu as saying.
Çavuşoğlu also said Turkey’s offensive in northern Syria’s Afrin region would be completed by May.
The Turkish military and Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters on Jan. 20 launched Operation Olive Branch in the Afrin region of Syria against the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which Turkey sees as the Syrian extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).