Turkey's Parliament on Tuesday ratified a motion to extend troop deployment for anti-terrorism operations in Iraq and Syria for two years.
While the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), its alliance partner Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the opposition Good Party (IP) voted in favor of the bill, the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) voted against.
In the Parliament, which hosts 583 deputies in total, AK Party has 287 deputies, CHP has 135 deputies, HDP has 56 deputies, MHP has 48 deputies and IP has 36 deputies.
The Turkish military is currently allowed to conduct counterterrorism and peacekeeping operations in Iraq and Syria until Oct. 30, 2021.
Turkey is battling the PKK terrorist group in northern Iraq and its Syrian affiliate the YPG in northern Syria.
The group constitutes a serious security threat to Turkey.
Turkey has also launched operations against other terrorist groups in the region, most notably Daesh.
