Turkey's National Security Council, or MGK, will convene on Wednesday to discuss security measures to contain escalating violence in the Southeast ahead of the upcoming snap elections.
The Sep. 2 gathering will be the first meeting, which will be attended by the new top brass of Turkish Armed Forces, or TSK, who were appointed during the two-day gathering of the Supreme Military Council, or YAS, early August.
Intelligence reports over the PKK's plots aiming to stir up chaos in the Southeast will be on the top of the agenda of the MGK, the state body made up of top military commanders and key political leaders.
The reports said that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, built up a massive weapons stockpile in some southeastern districts which are considered strategically important for the outlawed organization. They include clear evidences that showed the PKK has planned to expand clashes through a plan aiming to make civilians be pit against security forces.
Intelligence units have recently warned that PKK has planned to provoke people to stage mass protests over civilian casualties in the areas it had declared a so-called autonomy.
Key officials will discuss measures to ensure security in the predominantly-Kurdish Southeast before and during the snap elections which will be held on November 1. “Tomorrow's meeting will be the first meeting of MGK after the peace process was frozen. New strategies will be discussed to maintain security for the snap elections," an official said.
The state body is expected to draw a new road map in combating the PKK and make critical decisions to enforce security in the volatile southeast.
The government has visualized a sweeping operation to destroy weapons, stored in rural areas by the PKK which took a major blow during the strikes on the PKK bases in Turkish territory and Qandil in northern Iraq. The operation will be put on the table with its smallest details during the MGK meeting.
Turkey's campaign on the PKK resumed in late July, after two officers were killed in an attack in the southeastern city of Şanlıurfa two days after a suicide blast was blamed on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL. The PKK claimed responsibility for the attack and said they killed the officers to avenge the suicide bombing on Monday blamed on ISIL.
The meeting to be chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will also focus on external developments. A possible cross-border offensive targeting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, will be on the agenda.
Turkish Parliament will convene on September 3 to discuss the bill allowing the military to conduct a cross-border offensive. The motion to extend the mandate of authorizing Turkish Armed Forces to take military action in Syria and Iraq to fight any group threatening the country was submitted to the parliament on August 21.
The current mandate allows military incursions into Syria and Iraq against any threat to Turkey, and allows foreign forces to use Turkish territory for possible operations against similar threats, including the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.
