National Security Council Recommends to Extend State of Emergency, Close Airspace to KRG

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The National Security Council held a meeting today (October 16), under the presidency of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

At the end of the meeting which lasted one hour and 40 minutes, the National Security Council has decided to recommend the cabinet that the State of Emergency be extended for the fifth time for an additional three months, Turkey's airspace be closed to Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and İbrahim Halil Border Gate be handed over to Iraq.

Successful operations in Idlib

In its decisions and recommendations, the committee recognized "that the Turkish Armed Forces successfully carried on their operations in the de-conflict zone of Idlib as a part of the Astana agreement in order to establish permanent peace".

Close airspace to the KRG

Addressing the developments following the "KRG referendum that violated the Iraqi Constitution", the committee recommended to close the airspace of Turkey to the KRG and to hand over the İbrahim Halil Border Gate to Iraqi Central Government.

Extending State of Emergency

The council also recommended to extend the State of Emergency for three months addressing to "fight against the terrorist organizations of FETÖ/PDY (Fethullahist Terror Organization/Parallel State Organization), PKK/PYD-YPG (Kurdistan Worker's Party/Democratic Union Party - People's Protection Units) and DEAŞ (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). (EKN/DG)