Turkey’s parliament on Tuesday approved motions extending the military’s cross-border mandate in Iraq and Syria for three years and renewing its contribution to the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon for two years.
The cross-border mandate, first authorized on October 2, 2014, allows Turkish troops to conduct operations against groups identified as threats to Turkey’s national security.
Lawmakers from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), its ally the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the nationalist opposition İYİ (Good) Party and the New Path Party backed the motion, while the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) voted against it.
The text cites ongoing security threats from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an outlawed group that has fought an insurgency in Turkey since 1984, and from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
It also refers to Kurdish groups in northern Syria — including the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG) — which, according to the government, “refuse to integrate with the Syrian central administration due to a separatist agenda.” The motion references UN Security Council Resolutions 2170, 2178, 2249 and 2254, which address counterterrorism and the territorial integrity of Iraq and Syria.
CHP lawmaker Namık Tan said his party opposed both the three-year duration and the government’s broader policy toward Syria and Iraq. “We voted no on the last two motions, and we will vote no on this one. too,” he told parliament, questioning why the army remains deployed abroad while there are peace negotiations with the PKK and while a newly formed commission on “national solidarity” is discussing outreach to İmralı, where PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan is imprisoned.
Cengiz Çiçek, a lawmaker from the DEM Party, said the mandate undermines efforts for political accommodation in Turkey and Syria, warning that it risks drawing the country deeper into regional conflicts, the Iraqi Kurdish outlet Rudaw reported.
Responding for the AKP, lawmaker Fuat Oktay argued that the extension is essential to safeguard Turkey’s borders. He said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) control resource-rich territories with foreign backing and “block efforts toward lasting stability” by resisting integration with Damascus.
In a separate vote, parliament renewed Turkey’s participation in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) for two more years. The CHP joined the government parties in supporting the extension, while the DEM Party abstained. The motion notes that UNIFIL’s current mandate runs through December 31, 2026, with a gradual drawdown planned by 2027 under UN Security Council Resolution 2790.
UNIFIL, established by the United Nations in 1978, operates in southern Lebanon to monitor the withdrawal of Israeli forces, maintain peace and security along the Lebanon–Israel border and support the Lebanese government in extending its authority in the region. Turkey has contributed troops and naval units to the mission since 2006 as part of its broader commitment to UN peacekeeping operations.
The latest extensions take effect after the current mandates expire on October 30 for Iraq–Syria and October 31 for UNIFIL.